President Barack Obama said today that it’s time to slow the growth of defense spending as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, and he outlined a plan to slice $487 billion over a decade.

“The tide of war is receding,” Obama said, speaking at the Pentagon flanked by the nation’s top military brass. “We have the opportunity and the responsibility to look ahead to the force that we will need in the future.”

The military will be leaner but maintain its superiority and agility, he said. He also said defense spending would still increase, although more slowly, and would continue to be higher than the next 10 countries combined.

Obama said the new strategy would continue to shift from Cold War-era priorities to a focus on intelligence and counterterrorism. And he said the strategy would beef up the nation’s focus on potential threats in Asia and maintain vigilance in the Middle East.

Obama pledged to ensure that the nation not cut too deeply. “We can’t afford to repeat the mistakes we made in the past … when our military was left ill prepared for the future,” he said.