June 4, 2015 - Download PDF Version
by William French
Editor’s note: The amounts below reflect requested funding primarily for the Pentagon base budget, as opposed to the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund. The President’s fiscal year 2016 request suggested a partial recategorization of funds from OCO to the Pentagon base budget to reflect the true use of these funds. This is an important consideration when comparing the fiscal year 2016 request to the 2015 enacted budget, or the President’s request to proposed congressional budgets.
On February 2, the Obama Administration released its fiscal year 2016 budget request, reflecting significant input from the Department of Defense. The administration is seeking a $534.3 billion budget for the Department of Defense (DoD),[1] not including war funding or nuclear weapons activities at the Department of Energy. The Pentagon's base budget request for fiscal year 2016 exceeds the budget caps imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) by about $35 billion[2] and represents an increase of $38.2 billion above the amount enacted for fiscal year 2015. [3] Taking into account the full amount of military-related funding dispersed throughout the federal budget, the administration’s military spending request comes in at $625 billion, about $38 billion higher than the caps imposed by the Budget Control Act.
NOTE: All funding figures are in nominal dollars unless otherwise noted – i.e., they are not adjusted for inflation.
The Obama Administration is requesting $534.3 billion for the Department of Defense in fiscal year 2016, which begins on Oct. 1, 2016. The request represents a 7.7 percent increase from the enacted base budget of $496.1 billion for fiscal year 2015.[4] In addition to $534.3 billion for the DoD base budget, the recent budget request also includes funding for defense-related nuclear activities ($19.1 billion), international security assistance, including the Foreign Military Financing Program ($13.3 billion), other defense activities primarily in the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security ($7.5 billion), [5] and wars overseas ($50.9 billion).
Excluding war funding, the budget contains $574.2 billion for military programs. Once projected war costs are included, the new 2016 budget proposal would spend a total of $625.2 billion on all military programs.
The president’s budget requests $50.9 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) to fund ongoing military operations, most notably in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. This amount is $13.3 billion less the $64.3 billion enacted for OCO in fiscal year 2015, or a roughly 21 percent decrease. The President’s request includes only $5.3 billion specifically designated for the fight against ISIS. From 2001 to 2014, the United States spent $1.57 trillion on wars. See the running total of money spent on the wars at Cost of National Security.
The Pentagon is requesting a new round of base closures to occur in 2017. The last round of base closures occurred in 2005.
The administration is requesting $8.8 billion for missile defense, roughly $100 million more than enacted for FY2015.[6] This total does not include $224 million for the Missile Defense Agency’s Science and Technology programs, $169.2 million for Military Construction related to missile defense, or $432.1 million for related Operations and Maintenance.[7]
The request includes $25.6 billion for ship building and maritime systems, roughly $2.2 billion more than enacted for FY2015. [8] This year’s request includes $10.9 billion for surface combatant construction and $7.6 billion for submarine combatant construction.[9] The budget request includes funding for two DDG-51 destroyers, three Littoral Combat Ships and two “Virginia” class submarines. The budget also provides $2.8 billion to continue construction of the USS Gerald R. Ford, the first in a new class of nuclear aircraft carriers, and nearly $1.4 billion for the development of the next generation ballistic missile submarine program intended to replace the current “Ohio” class submarine.[10]
The request includes $48.8 billion for aircraft and related systems, roughly $6.7 billion more than enacted for FY2015. [11] This year’s request includes $19.7 billion for combat aircraft, $9 billion for cargo aircraft, and $2.9 billion for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The request provides $11 billion for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program (including the procurement of 57 aircraft), nearly $1.6 billion for V-22 “Osprey” tilt-rotor aircraft, $3 billion for the KC-46 airborne tanker aircraft, and $2.5 billion for C-130J Cargo aircraft. Twenty-nine MQ-9 “Reaper” and seventeen MQ-1 “Predator” Unmanned Aerial Vehicles were also requested in the budget. [12]
The FY2016 proposal includes $178.9 billion for military pay and benefits, including retiree health care and the Defense Health Program, and another $71 billion for civilian pay and benefits. The Department of Defense seeks a 1.3 percent pay increase for military personnel. The request would also reduce the share of housing costs paid for by DOD through Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) to 95 percent incrementally over the next 2 to 3 years. The budget includes $47.8 billion for the Military Health System.[13]
The request includes $8.8 billion for the nuclear weapons activities of the Department of Energy (DoE), a 8 percent increase compared to enacted FY2015 levels. It also contains over $1.9 billion for DoE’s nuclear nonproliferation work, an increase of more than 20 percent, and more than $5.5 billion for Defense Environmental Cleanup, a 1.4 percent increase. In total, the request includes more than $18.8 billion for the nuclear defense-related activities of the Department of Energy, a 7.2 percent increase.[14]
(in billions of nominal dollars)
| FY2015 | FY2016 | FY2017 | FY2018 | FY2019 | |||
| Request | 495.6 | 534.4 | 543.7 | 551.4 | 567.6 | ||
| Including “Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative" | 522 |
(in billions of nominal dollars)
| FY2015 Request | FY2015 Enacted | FY2016 Request | Dollar Change FY2016 Request vs. FY2015 Enacted | Percent Change FY2016 Request/FY2015 Enacted | |
| Army | 120.3 | 119.5 | 126.5 | +7.0 | +5.9% |
| Navy | 147.7 | 149.2 | 161.0 | +11.8 | +7.9% |
| Air Force | 137.8 | 136.9 | 152.9 | +16.0 | +11.7% |
| Defense-wide | 89.8 | 90.6 | 94.0 | +3.4 | +3.8% |
| Total | 495.6 | 496.1 | 534.3 | +38.2 | +7.7% |
(in billions of nominal dollars)
| FY2015 Request | FY2015 Enacted | FY2016 Request | Dollar Change FY2016 Request vs. FY2015 Enacted | Percentage Change FY2016 Request/FY2015 Enacted | |
| Military Personnel | 135.2 | 135.0 | 136.7 | +1.8 | +1.3% |
| Operation and Maintenance | 198.7 | 195.4 | 209.8 | +14.5 | +7.4% |
| Procurement | 90.4 | 93.6 | 107.7 | +14.1 | +15.1% |
| Research, Development, Test and Evaluation | 63.5 | 63.5 | 69.8 | +6.3 | +9.9% |
| Military Construction | 5.4 | 5.4 | 7.0 | +1.6 | +29.3% |
| Family Housing | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.4 | +0.3 | +25.4% |
| Revolving and Management Funds | 1.2 | 2.1 | 1.8 | -0.3 | -16.3% |
| Total | 495.6 | 496.1 | 534.3 | 38.2 | +7.7% |
Note: The Military Personnel request cited here includes military pay but exclude benefits and services such as the Defense Health Program and family housing.
(in millions of nominal dollars; unit and program costs are over the lifetime of the program)
(in millions of nominal dollars)
| Program | FY2016 Request | |
| Ballistic Missile Defense | 8,800.0 | |
| Selected Functions | ||
| Ground-Based Midcourse Defense | 1,628.4 | |
| AEGIS BMD | 1,605.2 | |
| THAAD | 718.2 | |
| Patriot/PAC-3 | 380.4 | |
| PAC-3/MSE Missile | 417.2 | |
| Other | ||
| Space Based Infra-Red System-High (SBIRS-High) | 745.0 | |
Source: http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2016/FY2016_Weapons.pdf
[1] In-doc pg 10. http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2016/FY2016_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf
[2] $499b BCA cap for 2016, see: http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/international/americas/2014/12/05/source-fiscal-2016-base-budget-request-will-be-36b-over-spending-caps/19961273/
[3] In-doc pg 10. http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2016/FY2016_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf
[4] Ibid
[5] Office of Management and Budget, Public Budget Database, Budget Authority FY 2016: https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Supplemental
[6] In-doc 49. http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2016/FY2016_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf
[7] In-doc 46. http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2016/FY2016_Weapons.pdf
[8] In-doc 49. http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2016/FY2016_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf
[9] In-doc 49. http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2016/FY2016_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf
[10] See shipbuilding section http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2016/FY2016_Weapons.pdf
[11] In-doc 49. http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2016/FY2016_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf
[12] See aircraft section http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2016/FY2016_Weapons.pdf
[13] See section entitled “Provide for the people” http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2016/FY2016_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf
