The Presidential 
commission exploring ways to balance the federal budget by 2015—excluding interest payments on the national debt—is proposing $100 billion in defense cuts for that fiscal year. Among the recommendations in their newly issued draft report, co-chairs Erskine Bowles, chief of staff to President Clinton, and Alan Simpson, former Republican Senator from Wyoming, would: apply savings from DOD’s efficiency initiative to deficit reduction ($28 billion); reduce procurement spending by 15 percent, including canceling the Marine Corps version of the F-35 strike fighter ($20 billion); freeze non-combat military pay at 2011 levels for three years ($9.2 billion); reduce overseas bases by one-third ($8.5 billion); trim research and development spending by 10 percent ($7 billion); modernize Tricare and defense health services ($6 billion); and double the proposed cuts to DOD’s contractor workforce ($5.4 billion). President Obama established the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in February. The 18-member panel will vote on its final report by Dec. 1. (Co-chairs’ proposal) (Draft savings document)
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…