By Yang Qingchuan
The Obama administration unveiled a 664-billion-US-dollar defense budget plan Thursday, which reflects the new American administration's shift of focus in weapon programs and wars.
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US President Barack Obama (R) delivers remarks on the budget for fiscal year 2010 ,as White House Budget Director Peter Orszag (L) stands aside, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Buildingin in Washington, the United States, May 7, 2009. Obama said on Thursday that he will trim 121 programs worth some 17 billion US dollars from his 3.4 trillion-dollar budget for fiscal year 2010. [Zhang Yan/Xinhua]
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Overall, the budget blueprint for fiscal year 2010, which begins on October 1, includes 534 billion dollars for baseline defense budget and 130 billion dollars for overseas military operations, primarily for wars in Iraq and the Afghanistan.
The total sum represents a modest one-percent increase of the total military budget for the current fiscal year, but the war funding will decrease by 10 percent and the baseline budget grows by 4 percent (2.1 percent after adjusting for inflation).
"The budget provides the balance necessary to finance our capabilities to fight the wars we are in today and the scenarios we are most likely to face in the years ahead, while at the same time providing a hedge against other risks and contingencies," Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is visiting overseas, said in a statement.
Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale echoed him at a Pentagon briefing, described the new plan as "a reform budget crafted to reshape the priorities of America's defense establishment."
The "sizeable" defense spending increase carried out by the Bush administration is coming to an end, Hale noted.
"Reshaping military"
Analysts said the new plan reflects the Obama administration's ongoing efforts to reshape the US military into a force better suited to unconventional wars rather than being prepared for fighting large-scale conventional wars, which is what Gates has been advocating for months.
In April, Gates said the administration "must rebalance this department's programs in order to institutionalize and enhance our capabilities to fight the wars we are in today and the scenarios we are most likely to face in the years ahead, while at the same time providing a hedge against other risks and contingencies."
A number of expensive traditional programs will be terminated under the plan, including the F-22 fighter jet, the VH-71 presidential helicopter program, the DDG-1000 destroyer program and the Transformational Satellite program.
Meanwhile, the plan also calls for cancellation of a new combat, search and rescue helicopter bidding program and 87 billion dollars of funding for the ground vehicle portion of the Army's Future Combat System program, and the kinetic energy interceptor program.
The plan has no funding for an alternate engine for F-35 fighter jet, a development project for a new long-range bomber and the C-17 transport planes.
