Donald Trump, after months of vague promises to increase the size of the military, put specific numbers to that boast on Wednesday, and in doing so, brought himself in line with mainstream conservative goals for U.S. defense.
In calling for a buildup to 350 ships for the Navy, 36 battalions for the Marine Corps and 1,200 fighter jets for the Air Force, Trump embraced goals espoused by the conservative Heritage Foundation while speaking to a crowd in Philadelphia.
And if those numbers sound familiar, they’re the same ones former candidate Carly Fiorina called for a year ago, and are also similar to goals laid out by Mitt Romney in 2012.
Justin Johnson, a senior policy analyst at Heritage, said Trump’s proposals are right in line with the thinking of mainstream experts who see a downward trajectory of the U.S. military, which is getting older, smaller and less ready.
“Anytime we see people talking about the issues we’re concerned about, that’s encouraging,” Johnson said. “I think it’s clear to most people following this that threats are going up at a time when our military is getting smaller and weaker, so we need to do something to turn that around.”
The Heritage Foundation lays out a similar plan in its annual Index of Military Strength.
In his speech, Trump cited a dangerous deterioration in America’s military supremacy. “History shows that when America is not prepared is when the danger is by far the greatest,” Trump said.
In largely scripted remarks, Trump outlined an ambitious plan to spend tens of billions of dollars to fund a bigger, better-equipped Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
“We want to deter, avoid and prevent conflict through our unquestioned military strength,” Trump said just hours before he was scheduled to appear at a national security forum in New York.
“We have the greatest people in the world, we have to give them the greatest equipment,” Trump said to applause.
The GOP nominee said he will get the multibillion-dollar increase in defense spending by simply asking Congress to end the mandatory budget caps known as sequestration.
And he said the massive buildup will be paid for by cutting the bloated federal government workforce through attrition, including trimming the military bureaucracy, ending the funding of what he says are unauthorized federal programs, and gaining revenue from increased energy production, which Trump estimates at $36 billion annually.
Trump envisions the biggest U.S. military expansion since the Cold War buildup during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.
Under his proposals, the Army, instead of shrinking to 450,000 troops, would grow to 540,000, close to its size during the height of the Iraq War. The Marine Corps would add 13 infantry battalions, growing from 23 to 36.
The Navy would gain roughly 75 ships, and become the 350-ship Navy some analysts have advocated. And the Air Force would get almost 90 additional fighter aircraft, bringing the total to 1,200.
Trump’s proposal, which he described only in broad outlines, is ambitious and expensive.
Johnson estimates it could add $50 billion to $75 billion to the Pentagon’s base budget, not counting the cost of warfighting.
But it’s worth it, said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a member of the House Homeland Security committee. “There’s no equivalent between domestic spending and military spending,” King told CNN after Trump’s speech. “In the military we have to spend what we have to spend cause if we are not safe, if we are not alive, it doesn’t matter what domestic programs we have.”
Trump is also calling for spending on missile defense, at a time when the U.S. and its allies are facing a heightened missile threat from Iran and North Korea.
“As these potential adversaries grow their missile programs, U.S. military facilities in Asia and the Middle East, as well as our allies, are increasingly in range, with the United States homeland also potentially threatened,” Trump said.
Trump’s biggest challenge could be to end sequestration spending limits, but a lot would depend on whether Republicans, in addition to winning the White House, also hold on to the House and Senate.
Johnson at Heritage doesn’t think national security should be a partisan issue. “We think rebuilding the military is a top priority and we hope whoever wins, whoever is in the White House next year using our policy research as a step toward rebuilding the military.”
