Washington, DC - Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe says proposed defense budget cuts by the Obama Administration are essentially disarming the country.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the budget cuts today, including cuts to the Future Combat System, which would eliminate a mobile cannon that was to be assembled in Elgin near Fort Sill.

The recommendations also end production of the F-22 fighter jet and cancel increases in the number of ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska, as had been planned.

Inhofe responded in a YouTube video from Afghanistan.

"I cannot believe what I heard today," Inhofe says. "President Obama is disarming America. Never before has a president so ravaged the military at a time of war."

The President recently announced plans to send an additional 21-thousand troops to Afghanistan.

"Here in Afghanistan, while the war is intensifying and the number of US forces increases at the direction of President Obama, he undercuts those he sends into harm’s way," Inhofe adds. "It is not just unbelievable…it is unconscionable."

The Defense Secretary called his budget recommendations an unorthodox approach and that, if approved, will "profoundly reform how this department does business."

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