Nuclear arsenal, troop numbers may shrink in U.S. military plan
By Agence France-presse, Calgary Herald January 6, 2012 4:34 AM

President Barack Obama laid out a new strategy Thursday for a "leaner" U.S. military that calls for a high-tech force with fewer ground troops and a greater focus on countering a rising China.

The revised strategy is supposed to shape budget priorities as the Pentagon prepares to cut $487 billion from planned spending levels over the next decade.

The highlights of the "defence strategic review":

Ground forces scaled back:

After 10 years of waging counter-insurgency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, the strategy calls for an end to vast nation-building missions and slashing the size of the army and the Marine Corps.

The army is already planning to cut back to 520,000 active duty troops from 565,000 after 2014, and many analysts say the number could drop below 500,000. The Marine Corps, which has swelled to 202,000, has plans to drop to 186,000, but may be asked to shrink further.

The new strategy suggests reducing the U.S. military presence in Europe, where about 43,000 service members are stationed, mostly in Germany, saying it will "evolve" although no details were provided. Defense officials say at least one army combat brigade, about 3,500 troops, could be eliminated in Europe.

The effect of the strategy may put the ground forces at a similar level to that before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In August 2001, the army had 482,000 troops and the Marine Corps was at 173,000. The U.S. has a total of 1.4 million men and women in uniform, compared to China's 2.3 million and 1.1 million troops in North Korea.

Nuclear arsenal reduced:

"It is possible that our deterrence goals can be achieved with a smaller nuclear force," the Pentagon's strategy document says.

The Pentagon has yet to reveal any details of a possible cutback to the atomic arsenal, but some lawmakers have proposed reducing the fleet of 14 nuclear-armed submarines.

End of the two-war doctrine:

The new strategy abandons the much-debated doctrine of preparing to fight two wars at the same time. Instead, the U.S. would be able to wage a large-scale conflict in one region while conducting a holding action elsewhere. The military would be "capable of denying the objectives of - or imposing unacceptable costs on - an opportunistic aggressor in a second region," the document says.

A defence budget without equal:

Obama pointed out the military's budget will still "be larger than roughly the next 10 countries combined."