WASHINGTON, 6 July 2010. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is likely to increase spending on weapon systems through 2016, and the Pentagon's rate of weapons spending should be larger than the overall DOD budget, Pentagon Comptroller Rober Hale said in a story by Tony Capaccio published in today's editions of Business Week.
While overall DOD spending will grow about 1 percent through 2016, weapons spending should grow by about 3 percent during the period, Hale told Capaccio during a recent interview. Spending increases are likely to involve the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, new military ground vehicles, ship construction, orbiting satellites, and unmanned vehicles, says the Business Week story headlined Weapons Budget Grows Amid Obama Cuts, Pentagon Comptroller Says.
“Procurement and research are in the ‘gaining’ portion of the budget,” Hale told Business Week. “The goal would be to move money from support-type activities -- operations and maintenance, military construction -- into acquisition.”
Meanwhile future DOD budgets will see little growth, says U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The Pentagon’s $549 billion base budget request for fiscal 2011 represents an increase of about 1.8 percent over fiscal 2010, when defense spending rose 2.1 percent. Those budgets follow eight years of 4 percent average annual growth.
Congress approved $104.8 billion for weapons this year, and wants to spend $111.2 billion in fiscal 2011, which begins Oct. 1. The Pentagon may request $120 billion in 2012, rising to $137 billion in 2015, Hale told Business Week.
