U.S. Army Secretary John McHugh said defense budget cuts beyond about $450 billion planned over the next decade would “be catastrophic.”
McHugh spoke during a press conference at the annual conference of the Association of the United States Army in Washington.
General Raymond Odierno, the Army’s chief of staff, said even the current level of planned cuts was “very, very difficult” and would mean shrinking the number of active-duty soldiers below 520,000.
Odierno said he was “deathly afraid” of what would happen if the congressional supercommittee fails to produce a deficit reduction package and a round of automatic cuts are triggered under the law.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brendan McGarry in Washington at bmcgarry2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net
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