Obama, Romney clash on military cuts

BOCA RATON, US - US President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney on Monday night clashed on military spending cuts as the two faced off with each other in the third and last presidential debate.

Romney attacked the president on the spending cuts already adopted by the Pentagon as well as the coming automatic cuts, saying the cuts are making the country's future "less certain and less secure".

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney (L) and US President Barack Obama (R) debate in front of moderator Bob Schieffer during the final US presidential debate in Boca Raton, Florida, October 22, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

Romney declared if he were to become president, he would make sure the Navy gets more ships, and the Air Force would have more resources to update its aging fleet of war planes.

Obama, however, maintained the cuts were made with a strategy in mind, and would not threaten the capability of the military. He scolded Romney for wanting to spend $2 trillion on military that the military didn't ask for in the first place.

Obama further derided Romney by saying his proposal of building more ships for the Navy was an outdated strategy, as the nature of warfare has changed, and more capable equipment such as aircraft carriers have replaced battleships.

The cuts the two candidates talked about referred to about $487 billion of military budget cuts over next 10 years. According to the Budget Control Act of last year, if Congress fails to identify where to cut $1 trillion of spending this year, automatic cuts called sequestration totaling $600 billion to security will kick in next year, with the Pentagon bearing about $500 billion, triggering across-the-board cut in defense spending over the next decade.