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Report: Pentagon’s Feb. Five-Year Budget to Include $250B Cuts

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DoD Photo: Air Force Master Sgt. Ken Hammond

The Defense Department will submit a five-year budget to Congress in February that includes $250 to $260 billion in cuts, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday according to a report from Reuters.

The debt ceiling agreement reached in August calls for $450 billion in cuts to defense spending over 10 years.

During a trip to South Korea, Panetta said the Pentagon would not hesitate to make aggressive cuts during the first half of that period.

“It would involve a 5-year budget, which is normally what we would present,” Panetta said. “But that would represent probably somewhere around $250 or $260 billion of the $450 billion that we’re required to reduce.”

The Reuters report cites Pentagon officials as saying the $450 billion in cuts would not jeopardize security. Panetta has previously warned against sequestration if the deficit reduction supercommittee can not submit a proposal to Congress by Nov. 23, saying it would “hollow out” the armed forces.

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