No US weapons cuts in short-term: Pentagon chief

US Navy F-35 © AFP/US NAVY/HO/File

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AFP) – US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday he expects no major cuts to weapons programs in the next two years but that fiscal pressures could require sacrifices.

“I don’t see any other major programs on the block for the next year or two but we’ll just have to see how serious the budget situation is,” Gates told cadets at the US Air Force academy in Colorado Springs.

Gates, answering a question about defense budget prospects, said he had proposed in 2009 cancelling or curtailing 33 weapons programs and Congress approved 32 of his recommendations.

The House of Representatives recently voted to back Gates’ remaining request to cut an alternative engine for the F-35 aircraft, which he had called unnecessary and extravagant.

But Gates warned there would be hard decisions ahead as budget pressures mount.

“I think we’ve done a good job in imposing some discipline internally,” he said. “I think we’ll have to make some very difficult choices, probably toward the latter part of this decade.”

The US Navy will face a dilemma in future years as it will need to find funds to replace aging warships that date back to the 1980s and to build costly new submarines, Gates added.

The Air Force will likely grapple with a similar problem in trying to secure money for new refueling tankers, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and a planned long-range bomber.