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The Obama administration and Congress should order a two-year “strategic pause” in major new Pentagon procurement to allow development of a more sustainable national security plan, according to a study by a nonpartisan think tank with close ties to key Democrats.

“The current financial sector crisis and the associated cost to taxpayers make large-scale increases in defense spending unimaginable for the next several years,” said the report, prepared for the Center for National Policy and due to be released on Tuesday.

The Washington think tank is run by former Democratic Rep. Tim Roemer of Indiana, a member of the 9/11 Commission who may land a top intelligence post under President Barack Obama.

A copy of the report was obtained by Reuters.

“The resources are too limited and there’s really no room for error anymore,” Scott Bates, who coauthored the report, told Reuters in an interview. U.S. defense spending grew 86 percent over the past eight years, with unclear results, the report said.

Bates said it was a good time for a strategic halt in weapons spending, given the start of a new administration, plans to wind down the U.S. war in Iraq, fresh faces in Congress, mounting public frustration with business as usual in Washington and the worsening global financial crisis.

“We’ve been operating in emergency mode for the past seven years and it’s time to collectively catch our breath and develop the force structure we need for the future,” Bates said.

The U.S. military’s current weapons are already a generation ahead of other possible enemy states, he said.

Several Washington think tanks have issued recommendations for the Obama administration in recent weeks, but the Center for National Policy (CNP) is the first to call for a two-year pause in spending on new weapons.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies released a report for a congressional commission on Monday concluding that cybersecurity is now one of the major national security problems facing the United States, but any solution needed to respect American privacy and civil liberties values fast payday loans.

The CNP report urged the new administration to focus on winning the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, rebuilding U.S. land forces, increasing the size of the Marine Corps and the Army, and phasing out the use of private security contractors by 2014, as well setting up a joint command to work on cybersecurity.

The Obama administration should review all major arms programs and set clear priorities about which should continue to be funded, and take steps to cut costs across all military branches, it said.

Specific recommendations included ending production of the Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) F-22 fighter; scaling back purchases of the F-35 fighter, also being built by Lockheed; focusing more on unmanned aerial vehicles; and increasing the size of the Navy, but with more submarines and lower-cost, smaller ships.

The think tank also raised serious concerns about the Army’s Future Combat Systems $230 billion modernization program, led by Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and SAIC Inc (SAI.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), and said none of the 14 separate weapons under the program should move into production until they meet tough technological readiness standards.

Obama has underscored the need to reform Pentagon spending, which has been plagued by cost overruns and chronic schedule delays. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has been asked to stay on by Obama, has told the armed services to focus more on winning today’s wars than developing weapons for future conflicts. 

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