Defense Secretary Ash Carter laid out more details of his budget request on Wednesday, including investing heavily in Navy ships and aircraft over the next several years.
Carter gave a broad overview of his $582.7 billion fiscal 2017 budget request earlier this week in Washington with a full budget expected to be released on Tuesday. He laid out specific details while meeting with sailors during a visit this week to California.
The budget proposal will cover both the fiscal 2017 request and a forecast for the next five fiscal years. In that five-year plan, the Pentagon wants to buy nine Virginia-class attack submarines and 10 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, The Hill reported. The secretary also announced that the military over the next five years will buy 13 more of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 joint strike fighters than planned, 10 of which would go to the Navy and the remainder to the Marine Corps. The request will also include 16 more Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets than planned. Yet Defense News reported that the Pentagon will order five fewer F-35s for the Air Force.
The Pentagon will also request two littoral combat ships in fiscal 2017, Bloomberg reported. Carter in December directed the Navy to reduce the total buy from 52 ships to 40. The Navy has two variants, one made by Lockheed Martin and the other by Austal USA.
Carter also said the Pentagon would invest in munitions, including $587 million in fiscal 2017 for 125 Raytheon SM-6 missiles. The SM-6 weapon is used for missile defense but has recently been tested in secret to “target enemy ships at sea at very long ranges,” Carter said.
The increased spending on SM-6s in fiscal 2017 is part of a broader $2.9 billion planned investment over the next five years.
The budget won’t just focus on platforms, but will also invest in the military’s personnel. Government Executive reported on Wednesday that the administration will ask for a 1.6 percent pay raise for federal civilians and troops in fiscal 2017, an increase from the 1.3 percent increase in fiscal 2016.
