Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military From: schweige@cs.nps.navy.mil (Jeffrey M. Schweiger) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Defense cuts Message-ID: <13381@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 22 Jan 90 06:04:17 GMT References: <12854@cbnews.ATT.COM> <13033@cbnews.ATT.COM> <13220@cbnews.ATT.COM> <13317@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey CA Lines: 86 Approved: military@att.att.com From: schweige@cs.nps.navy.mil (Jeffrey M. Schweiger) In article <13317@cbnews.ATT.COM> randy@ms.uky.edu (Randy Appleton) writes: > >In article <13220@cbnews.ATT.COM> ae219dp%prism@gatech.edu (Devon Prichard) writes: > >>excuse the flames, but the places to cut the defense budget are >>elsewhere, I think; >> >>1) Pentagon - the world's most security leak prone institute, as well as >> the source of some truly stupid procurement policy... >Probably true. > Please don't forget that procurement rules & regulations, and subsequesnt policy might have their roots in Congressional action. Congress has included weapons systems in the DoD Budget that DoD did not want. Also a significant amount of time is spend in the Pentagon just answering questions from members of Congress, or their staffers, or completing Congressionally mandated reports. >> >>2) General staff - we have more generals than some countries have >> privates! each general costs untold amounts of support >> staff as well.(here I refer to Navy as well as others; >> supposedly the Navy has 1 officer for every 3 enlisted) >Yep. I bet this is somehow connected to #1. > I don't have the most recent statistics handy, but the above estimate of the officer to enlisted ratio is off significantly. According to the 1989 edition of the Uniformed Services Almanac, the 30 September 1988 numbers were as follows (numbers from the almanac, ratios are my calculations): US Army: Officers: 107964 Enlisted: 668410 Total: 776374 Ratio: 1 officer for every 6.19 enlisted US Navy: Officers: 72038 Enlisted: 510208 Total: 582246 Ratio: 1 officer for every 7.08 enlisted US Marine Corps: Officers: 20047 Enlisted: 179478 Total: 199525 Ratio: 1 officer for every 8.95 enlisted US Air Force: Officers: 107338 Enlisted: 495244 Total: 602582 Ratio: 1 officer for every 4.61 enlisted DoD Total: Officers: 307387 Enlisted: 1853340 Total: 2160727 Ratio: 1 officer for every 6.03 enlisted Also approximately 2/3 of DoD officers are at the grade of O-3 (Army/Air Force/Marine Corps Captain/Navy Lieutenant and below. The number of generals and admirals in DoD is a little over 1000, or about 0.3% of all officers. [ mod.note: Let me point out that peacetime armies are always officer-heavy. It's important to have "excess" trained officers to allow for rapid growth of the military should a major war begin. The classic example of this would be the German Army under the Versailles treaty; they were only allowed 100,000 men, who then became the cadres for new units when the treaty was abrogated. - Bill ] Jeff Schweiger -- ******************************************************************************* Jeff Schweiger CompuServe: 74236,1645 Standard Disclaimer ARPAnet (Defense Data Network): schweige@cs.nps.navy.mil *******************************************************************************