The Trump administration’s proposed $574.5 billion Defense Department budget for next fiscal year includes money for many big-ticket weapons, including more pricy F-35 fighter jets, but the budget is roughly in line with the procurement plans laid out under the President Obama, according to Pentagon officials.
The biggest planned outlay is $10.8 billion for 70 F-35 joint strike fighters.
The F-35, built by Lockheed Martin, is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program ever, and the 2018 budget calls for 46 A-model aircraft for the Air Force; 20 B-models, which can take off and land vertically, for the Marine Corps; and four C-models, equipped with tailhooks, for the Navy.
The Navy gets a lion’s share of the money for major weapons systems, in part because ships are so much more expensive than planes or vehicles.
The budget calls for spending $5.5 billion for two Virginia-class submarines, $4.6 billion for the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier program, $4 billion for two Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers, and $1.9 billion for the Columbia-class submarine program, which will eventually replace the Ohio-class ballistic submarines, a critical part of the nuclear triad. All purchases are in line with Obama’s forecast last year.
“For the most part, this continues the momentum building the force as we go forward,” said John Roth, acting Pentagon comptroller, who said weapons acquisition could be accelerated once a new national defense strategy is written later this year.
“We will figure out what is the appropriate force structure in order to execute the new defense strategy when that’s done,” Roth said.
The Air Force will also begin replacing its aging aerial refueling fleet with a $3.1 billion buy of 15 KC-46 Pegasus tankers built by Boeing, and its request includes $2 billion in R&D funds for the future B-21 Raider long-range bomber, built by Northrop Grumman.
The Army’s asking for funds to buy 61 Apache attack helicopters at $1.4 billion and 48 Black Hawk helos at $1.1 billion, as well as $1.1 billion for 2,775 joint light tactical vehicles.
The Marines would get 6 new V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft at $1 billion.
