By Chris Hellman
Background
Today the Obama Administration released its fiscal year 2014 budget proposal. The administration is seeking a $526.6 billion budget for the Department of Defense, not including war funding or nuclear weapons activities at the Department of Energy. The administration did not specify funding for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2014. The Pentagon’s request assumes that sequestration won’t occur again in FY2014.
NOTE: All funding figures are in nominal dollars — i.e. they are not adjusted for inflation.
Budget Highlights
Top Line Funding
The Obama Administration is requesting $526.6 billion for the Department of Defense in fiscal year 2014, which begins on Oct. 1, 2013. Adjusted for inflation, that’s a 1.6 percent cut relative to FY2013 levels.
Funding for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO)
The budget does not include a request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the Office of Management and Budget, “final decisions about the pace of the drawdown in Afghanistan have not yet been made. As a result, the Budget includes a placeholder for DOD’s 2014 OCO funding, equivalent to the amount provided in the President’s 2013 Budget.” The president’s FY2013 budget request for OCO was $88.5 billion.
Base Closures
The Pentagon is requesting a new round of base closures in 2015. The last round of base closures occurred in 2005.
Missile Defense
The administration is requesting $9.2 billion for missile defense in FY2014, down roughly $500 million from current levels. This total does not include an additional $936 million for the SBIRS-High satellite.
Shipbuilding
The request includes $10.9 billion for new ship construction. The budget request includes funding for one DDG-51 destroyer, four Littoral Combat Ships, and two “Virginia” class submarines. It also provides $1.1 billion for development of the next generation ballistic missile submarine program to replace the current “Ohio” class submarine.
Aircraft
The request includes $1.9 billion for procurement of 21 V-22 “Osprey” tilt-rotor aircraft, and $8.4 billion for 29 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. It also includes $1.6 billion for the Air Force’s new KC-46 aerial re-fueling tanker program. It includes no funding for additional F-22 fighters, the C-17 transport or the Navy’s F/A-18E/F “Super Hornet.”
Military Personnel
The request includes a 1 percent increase in base pay. It would increase the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) on average by 4.2 percent and the Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) by 3.4 percent. It includes full funding ($49.4 billion) for the Military Health System.
Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR)
The administration is requesting $528 million for the CTR (also known as “Nunn-Lugar”) program, $17 million above the current level. The CTR program assists Russia and the former Soviet republics safeguard weapons of mass destruction and related technologies.
Department of Energy Activities
The request includes $7.87 billion for the nuclear weapons activities of the Department of Energy (a 4% increase of $311 million) and $2.14 billion for DoE’s nuclear nonproliferation work (a decrease of 7%, or $161 million) compared to current FY2012 levels. It also includes $5.317 billion for Defense Environmental Cleanup (up 6.3%, or $314 million). The request includes a total of $17.7 billion for the nuclear weapons-related activities of the Department of Energy (a 3.2% increase of $944 million).
See supporting tables.
via Fiscal Year 2014 Pentagon Budget Analysis | National Priorities Project.