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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.
The Air Force has embraced new technical approaches like open mission systems and rapid software updates for cutting-edge aircraft like the B-21 and Collaborative Combat Aircraft. Increasingly, though, the service is also working to apply these to its older, “legacy” aircraft, officials said this week.