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As part of a continued defense buildup, US President George W. Bush proposed a sizable 4.2 percent increase in military spending for 2004 in the federal budget he sent to Congress on Monday.
Bush asked Congress to allocate US$379.9 billion for military funding for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, representing an increase of US$15.3 billion from this year. Combined with the 11 percent boost in the current year, the proposed increase is the biggest defense buildup since former President Ronald Reagan's in the 1980s.
The largest spending increase would be for weapon improvement and development, reflecting Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's goal to transform the US military into a more mobile and lethal force for the future.
Among the military services, the biggest spending increase would be Navy shipbuilding, up 2.7 percent. The Navy would build seven new ships during the budget year, two more than this year.
All three fighter aircraft programs that the Bush administration suggested when it took office in 2001 to cancel or curtail would continue. The Air Force would get US$5.2 billion to buy 22 of its F/A-22 strike fighters; the Navy would get 3.5 billion to buy 42 of its F/A-18 Super Hornets and the multi-service Joint Strike Fighter would get US$4.4 billion.
The Pentagon also planned to put hundreds of millions into other futuristic weapons like drone aircraft for attack missions and the Global Hawk unmanned high-altitude surveillance plane.
Special operations forces, which are taking a more prominent role in the war on terrorism, would get a 1.5 percent increase, as would the missile defense system, which got about US$7.7 billion this year.
Pay raises for service members would range from 2 percent to 6. 3 percent, depending on rank and length of service.
By service, the Army would get US$93.7 billion, up 3 percent; the Navy, including the Marine Corps, would get US$114.6 billion, up 3.5 percent; and the Air Force would get 113.7 billion, up 5.7 percent.
The Pentagon budget did not include money for a possible war with Iraq, which would cost billions of dollars. The Defense Department has refused to disclose its estimates of the likely cost.
The budget plan projects greater increases in defense spending in the coming years. It would grow to US$400 billion in 2005, 440 billion by 2007 and 483 billion in 2009.
The military budget was part of the 2.23 trillion-dollar budget proposal Bush sent to Congress on Monday. Funding for most social programs would be frozen at the level Bush requested last year, or would grow at the rate of inflation, about 2 percent.
(eastday.com February 4, 2003)
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