Pentagon Review Results In Few Changes

Defense Secretary William Cohen, in his first extended preview of a sweeping Pentagon study of strategy and weapons, said Monday the months-long review has resulted in few major changes.

“We have chosen … to largely sustain the current force,” Cohen said in the text of a speech prepared for the board of the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.

At present, there are 1.4 million men and women on active duty. Cohen did not say so, but reports have put the number of cuts expected to result from the “Quadrennial Defense Review” at around 60,000 active duty troops.

“We intend to maintain a robust presence in key regions of the world,” Cohen said, which he said means the roughly 100,000 troops in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as another 100,000 deployed in Europe.