WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- How can the United States seriously cut its military spending while retaining and improving its national security?

As the U.S. government cuts, it needs to preserve the military's combat units. That means, above all, the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps infantry battalions. Cut the vast superstructure above those battalions, but keep the battalions. Infantry battalions are what we need most for Fourth Generation wars, which we should do our utmost to avoid but which we sometimes will be drawn into, even with a defensive grand strategy.

In the U.S. Navy, keep the submarines. Submarines are today's and tomorrow's capital ships, and geography dictates the United States must remain a maritime power.

Keep the big aircraft carriers, too, though there is little need to build more of them. Carriers are big, empty boxes that can carry many things besides aircraft. Mothball most of the cruisers and destroyers.

Build lots of small, cheap ships useful for controlling coastal and inland waters, and create strategically mobile and sustainable "packages" of such ships. Being able to control waters around and within stateless regions can be important in Fourth Generation war.