AFP, WASHINGTON: The Pentagon on Monday unveiled its 419.3 billion dollar 2006 budget, which cuts planned spending on expensive military hardware in favor of badly needed ground forces, US defense officials said.
An estimated 48 billion dollars will go to restructure the army over seven years, increasing the number of combat brigades by 30 percent, they said.
“It isn't the size of the force that was wrong, it's the shape of the force and the capability of the force,” US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters.
Two infantry marine battalions, 1,200 more special operations forces and other units also will be added under the plan.
If approved, the proposal would represent a 4.8 percent increase in military spending over the Defense Department's 400.1 billion dollar budget in
It does not include costs associated with US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, however. Those will be funded separately through an 80 billion dollar request for emergency spending to be submitted to Congress next week, officials said.
Without discussing details, Pentagon officials acknowledged that part of the military's share of the supplemental request will go to restructure the army as well as day-to-day costs of conducting military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rumsfeld denied the intent was to hide the actual growth in military spending. “That would be wrong. And we wouldn't do that,” he said.
Pentagon officials said 190 billion dollars have been appropriated for the global war on terror so far, not including 75 billion dollars being requested for fiscal 2005.
The Pentagon's proposed 2006 budget and a companion plan for military spending through 2011 were clearly shaped by demands of a long war in Iraq and mounting US deficits.
“Rather than getting the technology-intensive force that secretary Rumsfeld envisioned, the nation seems destined to have a labor-intensive military posture,” said Loren Thompson, a military analyst.
The budget plan calls for spending 55 billion dollars less than anticipated on a variety of programs, slashing procurements of fighter jets, submarines, warships and even missile defense.
About 25 billion dollars of those savings will be poured back into the army's program to reorganize its forces around “modular” combat brigades rather than divisions, the defense officials said. Another 10 billion dollars will be raised through supplemental funding requests in 2005 and 2006, army officials said.
The reorganization aims to create 43 brigades by 2007 from top-heavy active duty divisions that now have 33 brigades, relieving the stress on US ground forces. Army National Guard divisions also will be restructured to form 34 combat brigades by 2010.
The army's actual strength is now about 500,000 and it has authority to go up to 512,000 on a temporary basis.
“We know that the ground forces are stressed, and we know that we've had to increase them. And we have, by about 20,000,” Rumsfeld said. “We've done it under our emergency authority, without any change … in statutory end-strength.”
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz indicated in congressional testimony last week that the temporary increase may be made permanent in 2007, something Rumsfeld has long resisted.
“The army is wrestling with that question,” Rumsfeld said Monday, adding that there was still a chance that a permanent increase would not be necessary.
The largest single account in the 2006 budget was operations and maintenance, which was increased by 11.1 billion dollars to 147.8 billion dollars to maintain the readiness of US military forces.
The budget funds a 3.1 percent pay increase for the base military pay, and a 2.3 percent pay hike for civilians.
Still, the 2006 budget is 5.9 billion dollars lower than anticipated in the fiscal 2005 spending plan.
That marks the first slowing of the huge military buildup that followed the September 1, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
The air force took the biggest hit. The number of stealthy, supersonic F-22 fighters it will buy was pared to 179 — 96 fewer than planned.
The navy's planned procurement of Virginia-class attack submarines was reduced to one a year. The navy also loses two DDX destroyers and an amphibious dock ship. One of its aircraft carriers will be retired under the plan.
The Marine Corps will be get fewer V-22 Osprey aircraft than it wanted.
The missile defense program, a Republican favorite but also the Defense Department's most expensive research and development program, will have a billion dollars lopped off its 8.8 billion dollar budget in 2006. Over six years, proposed cuts to the program total five billion dollars.
