The US Defense Department plans to cut further defence spending beyond $450 billion for the next years would be ‘catastrophic’, Army Secretary John M. McHugh recently said at the 2011 Association of the US Army’s annual meeting and exposition.

McHugh said the potential for the department to face additional budget cuts of $500 billion to $600 billion in the next decade keeps him up at night. Those additional cuts could happen if a congressional “super committee” looking at ways to reduce the federal debt by $1.2 trillion can’t come to agreement by Thanksgiving. If that happens, the debt reduction law passed over the summer forces a “sequestration,” by which as much as half that amount must come from national security spending.

“I think we’re in a positive position to accommodate at least the $450 billion or so in cuts that have been scheduled against the DOD to this point.” McHugh said and added that a sequestration would be catastrophic to the US’s defence posture.

Army Chief of Staff General Raymond T. Odierno also echoed similar concerns and mentioned that the potential for a “hollow force” would not come to fruition. Instead, he said, a ready and capable force would exist, though its size might be affected.