A recent report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies suggesting military personnel costs are unsustainable is misleading and ignores more recent, relevant data, the Military Officers Association said.

The CSIS study said Congress and DOD need to reconsider pay and benefits to control rising payroll costs, as On Base reported.

But retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins, president and CEO of the Military Officers Association of America, blasted it in a Friday op-ed in Military Times.

“The report may have a 2021 date on it, but it’s a bald-faced rehash of statistics from almost a decade ago, comparing personnel cost changes between 2000 and 2012,” Atkins wrote. “And its recommendations are the same wrongheaded suggestions the Military Officers Association of America has been fighting for decades by presenting Congress with more relevant figures and highlighting the true costs of service.”

Atkins said the federal government has tried similar pay cutbacks since the 1970s and that they proved “shortsighted.”

Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Ryan Callaghan