The Defense Department is requesting $526.6 billion in discretionary budget authority to fund defense programs in its base budget for Fiscal 2014, announced Pentagon officials on Wednesday. “Even while restructuring the force to become smaller and leaner and once again targeting overhead savings, this budget made important investments in the President’s new strategic guidance—including rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific region and increasing funding for critical capabilities such as cyber, special operations, and global mobility,” said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in a release. “Most critically,” continued Hagel, it “sustains the quality of the all-volunteer force and the care we provide our service members and their families.” The request does yet not include a detailed budget for overseas contingency operations. DOD budget officials are preparing an OCO request for submittal to Congress in the coming weeks, states the release. The request also does not reflect the full amount of cuts under the budget sequester. Instead, it incorporates the White House’s “balanced deficit reduction proposals” meant to cut about $150 billion from the defense budget out to Fiscal 2021 as opposed to the approximately $500 billion that sequestration would strip over that span. (DOD Fiscal 2014 budget summary?)Here’s the macro breakdown: Operations and Maintenance: $209.4 billion; Military Personnel: $137.1 billion; Procurement: $99.3 billion; RDT&E: $67.5 billion; Military Construction/Family Housing: $11.0 billion; and Other: $2.3 billion.Here’s the department breakdown: Air Force: $144.4 billion; Navy: $155.8 billion; Army: $129.7 billion; and Defense-wide: $96.7 billion.
The U.K. and the U.S. will continue to enjoy access to the ports, airfield, and workshops at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for at least another century, under a deal inked between the U.K. and Mauritius May 22.