On Feb. 13 the Obama Administration released its proposed fiscal year 2013 budget for the federal government. The request includes $525.4 billion for the Department of Defense (DoD) in fiscal 2013, which begins on Oct. 1, 2012. Adjusted for inflation, this is 2.6 percent below fiscal 2012 levels, the first real decrease in the Pentagon's annual base budget in over a decade.
The Defense Department plans to reduce spending by a total of $259 billion over five years and $487 billion over ten years. These figures do not include funding for the nuclear weapons activities of the Department of Energy nor do they include the costs of ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
