'Hollow Growth'

Todd Harrison, budget expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, argues in a new report published today that the spike in U.S. defense spending over the last decade produced "hollow growth."

Harrison, in an 86-page assessment of the Pentagon's fiscal year 2012 budget request, states rising expenditures for weapons acquisition, personnel and peacetime operations did not necessarily buy the Defense Department more:

Overall, nearly half of the growth in defense spending over the past decade is unrelated to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- personnel costs grew while end strength remained relatively flat, the cost of peacetime operations grew while the pace of peacetime operations declined, and acquisition costs increased while the inventory of equipment grew smaller and older. The base budget now supports a force with essentially the same size, force structure, and capabilities as in FY 2001 but at a 35 percent higher cost. The Department is spending more but not getting more.

Much more, including a review of current proposals to reduce defense spending and "key levers" to control military spending can be found in the full report.