According to the fiscal 2013 budget released Feb. 13, $15.1 billion of the Pentagon's $75 billion in savings would come from reorganizing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. (Darin Russell / Lockheed Martin)
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The Pentagon says it will save $75 billion over the next five years by reorganizing its investment spending, according to spending figures for the fiscal 2013 budget proposal released Feb. 13.
A large part of those savings, $15.1 billion, would come from reorganizing the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
Another $13.1 billion would come from reducing the Navy’s shipbuilding plans, $4.3 billion from delaying the SSBN(X) Ohio-class replacement submarine, and $2.5 billion from canceling Northrop Grumman Block-30 Global Hawk purchases.
Between 2013 and 2017, the Pentagon also claims it will save $1.3 billion by delaying the Army Ground Combat Vehicle program, $900 million by canceling Humvee recapitalization and $2.3 billion by canceling the Defense Weather Satellite program.
Overall, the Pentagon has requested $179 billion in 2013 to buy and develop aircraft, ships, vehicles, missiles and satellites.
The specific military service breakdown is in the 2013 budget proposal is:
• $136.6 billion for the Army, about $700 million more than Congress appropriated for the service in 2012.
• $155.9 billion for the Navy Department, about $900 million less than appropriated in 2012.
• $140.1 billion for the Air Force, about $4.8 billion less than appropriated in 2012.
• $94.9 billion for defense-wide issues, about the same as Congress appropriated for those items in 2012.
When adjusted for inflation, the Pentagon has proposed a five-year budget that remains flat.
DoD has also requested $88 billion, in addition to its base budget request, for operations in Afghanistan.
In all, the Pentagon’s 2013 budget proposal outlines the elimination of $259 billion in planned spending over the next five years. The Budget Control Act of 2011, designed to lower the U.S. government deficit, mandated $487 billion in defense cuts to planned defense spending over the next decade.
