Trump DoD budget request jumps more than $50 billion over previous year
NewsMay 31, 2017
WASHINGTON. The Trump Administration released its proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 budget request for the Department of Defense (DoD) of $639.1 billion, $574.5 billion in the base budget and $64.6 billion in the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget. This is an overall increase of nearly 9 percent over FY 2017?s $586.7 billion total.
The request is also $52 billion above the defense budget cap in the Budget and Control Act (BCA) of 2011, more commonly known as sequestration. The FY 2018 funding request will be “fixing the holes” in previous budgets in areas like training, maintenance, and modernization, states a DoD release.
The BCA and sequestration have “done more damage to our readiness than the enemies in the field,” said Secretary of Defense James Mattis to members of Congress.
The FY 2018 budget request is the second step in a three-step process to rebuild the Armed Forces. The first step was the FY 2017 Appropriations Act, according to the DoD. That money is for immediate warfighting readiness shortfalls and funds the increased operating tempo in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The increased funding requested for modernizations will also mean more money spent on embedded electronics for modernizing, radar sonar, fire control, and avionics, as well intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems. The Navy will be increasing
Funding highlights for program modernization and advanced capabilities include:
- F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, 70 aircraft; $10.3 billion
- KC-46 Tanker, 15 aircraft; $3.1 billion
- B-21 Bomber, $2.0 billion
- Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, 2,647 vehicles; $1.1 billion
- Science and Technology, $13.2 billion
- The Navy will be increasing shipbuilding production to grow to 292 ships in 2018 from 275 today.
Highlights include:
- Virginia Class Submarine, 2 ships; $5.5 billion
- DDG-51 Destroyers, 2 ships, $4.0 billion
- CVN-78 Class Aircraft Carrier, 1 ship, $4.6 billion
For detailed analysis on what the budget request means for embedded computing suppliers be sure to the next edition of the McHale Report deploying end of June.
