P
resident Bu
sh has submitted a 2008 defense budget request amounting to $481.4 billion—just for the DOD baseline not the war—surpassing the 2007 enacted level by 11.3 percent. Per a DOD release, that equates to a “real growth” of 8.6 percent. The baseline budget request includes a three percent pay raise for military and civilian personnel, funding to support the growth of the Army and Marine Corps, and enough for 20 F-22A Raptors and 12 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The graph here shows the shares by major category. The table here indicates the budget shares by service and shows the Air Force and Navy have much lower increases than the Army. Caution: The amount shown for the Air Force—$136.6 billion—includes $25.9 billion in non-blue money the service doesn’t control.
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.