Happy budget day! Yup, the Pentagon's 2013 budget request officially drops today and according to Reuters, it's going to ask for $187.8 billion to buy planes and ships while chopping cash for ground vehicles.
As we've said before, in the 2013 budget, strategic weapons are winning the funding game in the second decade of the 21st Century.
Keep in mind that what you'll read below is an early report, check in to DoD Buzz today near-live coverage of the Pentagon's official budget rollout.
While the Air Force and Navy are seeing significant investment in new toys, the overall defense budget is shrinking by just over 12 percent from last year's defense budget (when war funding, known as overseas contingency operations money, is included), says this report.
The Army and Marines are expected to see investment in replacements for the Humvee and M2 Bradley fighting vehicle but will see significant cuts to their truck fleets with a 32 percent drop in ground vehicle cash, according to Rueters:
The Pentagon's spending plan includes $10.9 billion for ground vehicles, 32 percent less than the $16 billion requested in fiscal 2012. The new request includes $117 million for continued development of a new light tactical vehicle for the Army and Marine Corps and a heavier new Ground Combat Vehicle.Funding for the Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles built by Oshkosh Corp would drop to $58.1 million for 1,534 vehicles from $650 million for 9,336 vehicles funded in fiscal 2012.
Click through the jump to read more details and see the Pentagon's freshly released 2013 budget highlights.
While the Air Force and Navy were spared super steep cuts, overall funds requested for aviation are going to be slightly down, according to the wire service.
As we all know F-35 Joint Strike Fighter procurement is being slowed with $9.17 billion requested for fiscal year 2013, "down slightly from $9.25 billion requested in fiscal 2012," reports Reuters. The Air Force is also getting $1.82 billion for the new KC-46 tanker.
However, reductions in C-130J buys and 32 percent chop in V-22 Osprey tiltrotor cash means that overall aircraft spending is down 12 percent:
Overall spending on aircraft programs will drop 12 percent to $47.6 billion in fiscal 2013 from $54.2 billion in the fiscal 2012 budget request, mainly due to a 41 percent drop in funding for the Lockheed-built C-130J transport plane, and a 32 percent cut in funding for the V-22 Osprey.The Pentagon proposed spending $835 million on seven more C-130J airlifters in fiscal 2013, down from $1.43 billion for 12 planes in fiscal 2012.
Funding for the V-22, a tilt-rotor aircraft built by Boeing and Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc, would drop to $1.91 billion for 21 aircraft, from $2.8 billion for 35 planes in fiscal 2012.
The plan foresees spending of $1.25 billion for six high-altitude unmanned Global Hawk spy planes built by Northrop Grumman - three for NATO and three for the Navy. Panetta announced last month that the Pentagon was cancelling work on the Air Force's Block 30 variant.
The plan would increase funding for the AH-64 Apache helicopter built by Boeing by 55 percent, funding 40 remanufactured helicopters and 10 new aircraft. Northrop Grumman
and Lockheed also have a big role in the program.
Funding for the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp, would continue a five-year procurement agreement with $1.3 billion for 59 of the twin-engine helicopters.
As for ships, they're alright seeing as how they fit into the Pentagon's new focus on the western Pacific. You know, the ocean, that thing you need big ships and airplanes to control.
Shipbuilding programs would get $22.6 billion in the fiscal 2013 request, down from $24 billion in the fiscal 2012 request. That will fund 2 Virginia-class nuclear attack submarines, 2 DDG-51 destroyers, and 4 Littoral Combat Ships.
The Navy is also asking for "$781.7 billion for initial construction funding of a new aircraft carrier, and $1.6 billion for the refueling of the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier."
Here's the Pentagon's budget highlight paper that was released this morining:
DoD 2013 Budget Highlights(function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();
Here's a more detailed look at the budget request:
FY2013 Budget Request Overview Book(function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();
