DoD official warns about more budget cuts

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Sweeping U.S. defense budget cuts could weaken the military and increase America's jobless rate by another 1 percent, Pentagon spokesman George Little said.

Little referred Thursday to the "sequestration" mechanism under the nation's debt-reduction law.

The mechanism takes effect automatically if Congress does not come up with more measures to reduce the deficit by the end of November.

In such an event, there would cuts of another $500 billion in the next 10 years in addition to the $350 billion in reductions already identified over the same period.

Little said if sequestration takes effect, "we would be looking at, in all likelihood, the smallest Army and Marine Corps in decades, the smallest tactical Air Force since [it] was established and the smallest Navy in nearly 100 years," the Defense Department said on its Web site.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta "has reiterated time and time again that we don't have to choose between our fiscal security and our national security, but if we go to sequestration we would very well have to make that choice," Little said.

The Defense Department report said a Pentagon internal analysis has shown sequestration could also affect the U.S. industrial base by threatening many of the 3.8 million military and civilian jobs in that sector.

Little said those jobs in the private sector support the innovation and creativity needed to keep America strong.