The Pentagon plans to reduce U.S. forces in Afghanistan to 5,500 troops by the end of 2015 and draw down its U.S. embassy presence there to about 1,000 personnel, according to figures released early Monday President Obama’s fiscal 2016 budget request.
The overall baseline funding request for the Pentagon is $534.3 billion, with another $50.9 billion requested for overseas contingency operations. The baseline request is $35 million higher than the $499 billion sequestration cap imposed on defense spending for fiscal 2016 and is significantly higher than last year’s request, due to an additional $24 billion the administration is asking for to modernize a host of weapons systems.
That means that unless Congress votes to lift the cap, not all of the requests would be funded.
The contingency spending, on the other hand, is insulated from the budget caps. It includes about $39 billion for operations inside Afghanistan or for forces supporting those operations, including the drawdown and reset of equipment. The Afghanistan request is lower than last year, “reflecting the end of the combat mission and the continued drawdown of forces from Afghanistan.” It funds an Afghanistan end strength of 5,853 through fiscal 2016, down from the current level of about 10,500 troops.
The remaining overseas contingency funds include about $3.5 billion for operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, $800 million to support training and exercise missions in Europe to support Ukraine, and about $8.6 billion in classified funding requests.
The baseline budget, however, is not protected from sequestration caps. That means that three major parts of the baseline — a long procurement list of next-generation platforms, compensation for personnel, and the costs to operate and maintain all of the Pentagon’s system — will compete for the funding that Congress approves. Most of the major procurement requests come from the Navy and Air Force, which in recent years had their modernizations deferred as the U.S. funded ground operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The budget also makes another attempt at shutting down the A-10. The Pentagon noted that the plane is not capable of providing mission support in contested airspace, and that as a result, the A-10 provided only 20 percent of all close air support missions in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
However, as budgets leaned heavily toward funding Army and Marine Corps operations, every Navy and Air Force manned fixed-wing platform in service, save for the B-2 stealth bomber, showed its value of providing close air support missions during those wars. For example, even the Navy’s F-18 E/F Super Hornet was tasked with close air support. So the A-10’s slice of the contribution isn’t as minuscule as it sounds.
The budget includes a 282-ship Navy, up from 271 ships in fiscal 2015. Major shipbuilding requests include:
• $2.5 billion to continue construction of the new Ford Class nuclear aircraft carrier
• $3.3 billion to continue the procurement of two Virginia Class attack submarines
• $3.1 billion for two DDG-51 Arleigh Burke Class destroyers
• $1.4 billion to procure three Littoral Combat Ships
• $550 million to complete funding for one San Antonio Class Amphibious Transport Dock Ship, LPD-28
Major air power requests include:
• $11 billion for 57 additional F-35 Joint Strike Fighters — 44 Air Force versions, four Navy versions and nine for the Marine Corps.
• $2.9 billion for a host of drones, including 17 MQ-1B Predators; 29 MQ-9 Reapers; three RQ-4 Global Hawks and seven smaller targeting drones known as the RQ-7 Shadow/ RQ-11 Raven and the RQ-21 Blackjack.
• $2 billion to continue the development of the anticipated Long Range Strike Bomber.
• $1.6 billion for 16 additional V-22 Ospreys.
• $3.8 billion for initial engineering, manufacturing and development for the next generation Boeing 747-8 presidential aircraft, commonly known as Air Force One.
• Retains the U-2 spy plane through fiscal 2019. In the fiscal 2015 request, the administration tried to retire the U-2 fleet in favor of further funding for the high-altitude unmanned Global Hawk. Given “current operational requirements,” according to the budget documents, the Air Force will delay retirement of the U-2.
• Asks for funding to modernize the Vietnam-era UH-1 helicopters currently guarding U.S. Minuteman nuclear ballistic missile fields.
