Update: Pentagon Seeks $533.8B for 2010 Baseline Budget
By JOHN T. BENNETT
Published: 7 May 2009 15:05
The Obama administration sent Congress a $663.8 billion 2010 spending request May 7, a proposal composed of a $533.8 billion baseline budget and an additional $130 billion to fund ongoing military operations.
The base budget request is $20.5 billion more than the $513.3 billion enacted for 2009, a 4 percent hike. (AFP)
The base budget request is $20.5 billion more than the $513.3 billion enacted for 2009, a 4 percent hike (2.1 percent after adjusting for inflation). The spending request shifts some personnel programs and other items that had been in war funding measures into the baseline budget. It also proposes terminating or altering about 50 programs. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced most of those moves April 6.
"The budget provides the balance necessary to … finance our capabilities to fight the wars we are in today and the scenarios we are most likely to face in the years ahead, while at the same time providing a hedge against other risks and contingencies," Gates said in a statement.
Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale echoed something Gates has said for months by labeling the spending plan "a reform budget."
Hale said he has been involved in or monitored Pentagon budgets for several decades, and only "a handful of budgets" meet the reform standard. "This one certainly does," he said.
The sizeable defense spending increase carried out by the Bush administration is coming to an end, Hale said.
"The spigot is starting to close," Hale said.
Critics of the budget request are calling for the secretary to reveal the analysis he used to make program decisions.
Speaking earlier May 7 at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, accused the Obama administration of "cashing in on a peace dividend by growing domestic spending and weakening our defenses.
"History has shown that cashing in a 'peace dividend' does not make America safer - or the world a more peaceful place," Cornyn said. "Cashing in a peace dividend only emboldens other nations - as well as non-state actors - to test America's resolve to defend our people and our interests."
Cornyn said he is still looking for the rationale behind these recommendations.
"Congress would benefit from the risk assessments by our regional combatant commanders and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We need to know what threats they see, and the kinds of capabilities we will need to deter and defeat them. We also need the strategic documents that can help inform our budget decisions," he said.
No Outyear Plan
Typically, annual budget requests feature projections of spending for the next year, and the five after that. The 2010 request will not feature a detailed outyear plan, only one adjusted for inflation, Hale said. That's because "we don't have a plan beyond 2010," Hale said. That will come with completion of the Quadrennial Defense Review, slated for completion late this year or early next year, he said.
The Obama administration followed through on a pledge to deliver the 2010 war funding request along with the annual budget request. That same statement says the 2010 baseline request includes funding for some programs that had under the Bush administration been included in supplemental funding measures, "including those supporting our military families and providing long-term medical care to injured service members."
Among other features, the budget request reflects Gates' drive to ship more intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance assets to Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a Defense Department budget proposal summary accompanying the statement.
The proposal would increase the Pentagon's overall ISR spending by $2 billion, monies that will be used for things like fielding 50 Predator orbits by 2011 (this funding had previously been in supplementals); increasing manned ISR platforms like turbo-prop planes; and conducting research and development of ISR "enhancements and experimental platforms optimized for today's battlefield," according to the summary.
Further, the baseline request calls for 2,400 more U.S. Special Operations troops, a 4 percent hike.
The administration's defense budget plan also "fully funds" the ongoing increase of the Army and Marine Corps, while also halting planned personnel reductions for the Air Force and Navy, defense officials said.
Gates already had announced plans to kill the vehicle portion of the Army's Future Combat System program because he feared those platforms were vulnerable to the kinds of makeshift bombs that have plagued U.S. forces in Iraq. But Gates has made clear he wants the service to craft new vehicle requirements and launch another program for those vehicles in coming years.
Defense officials briefing reporters on the budget said part of determining the requirements for the new vehicle program will be taking into account how the thousands of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles purchased for Iraq "will play into FCS."
It also calls for adding $500 million to boost helicopter crews and fill a maintenance crew shortfall that has left commanders falling short of in-theater rotorcraft requirements. Defense officials want to add 150 helicopter crews to make more airframes available in theater.
On missile defense, the administration is seeking to buy only a single Airborne Laser aircraft due to "affordability and technology problems," while terminating the Multiple Kill Vehicle effort "because of significant technical challenges," according to the summary. Defense officials said they also terminated the Kinetic Energy Interceptor program because of technological issues.
Hale said the administration's budget plan wants to refocus the military's missile defense efforts "on rogue threats."
The request continues plans to field a radar suite and missile interceptor system in the Czech Republic and Poland, largely with unspent 2009 dollars, and only if ongoing political negotiations with those nations pan out.
The proposal would increase the Joint High Speed Vessel buy in 2010 from two to four ships; buy one additional Littoral Combat Ship; end the F-22 fighter at 187 jets and C-17 production at 205; cap Army Brigade Combat Teams at 45 instead of 48; and set in motion plans to restart this summer the Air Force's controversial effort to buy new aerial refueling aircraft.
On F-22 and C-17, defense officials say internal Pentagon analysis shows there is no "military requirement" for either plane.
It also proposes buying six additional Aegis combat system-equipped ships by 2015, according to officials and documents.
One growing mission for the U.S. military is offensive cyber operations and safeguarding networks from attacks. Senior Pentagon officials say U.S. military information networks are attacked numerous times each day.
Hale displayed a chart during the session with reporters that said the budget plan would "improve cyber capability." It did not specify a dollar figure or provide details of what the administration will do to help the Pentagon carry out its cyber mission.
The White House is conducting a 60-day review aimed at laying the foundation for the first government-wide cyber operational strategy. It remains unclear whether that study will assign specific cyber roles and authorities to the Pentagon and four military services.
The budget request also seeks $550 million to train and equip foreign militaries "to undertake counterterrorism and stability operations and to conduct security and stabilization activities," according to the budget summary.
It terminates the Transformational Satellite program, and proposes the purchase of one new Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite in 2010.
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