Pentagon unveils $686 billion military budget for FY19 | World Defense

Pentagon unveils $686 billion military budget for FY19

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Pentagon unveils $686 billion military budget for FY19
By: Joe Gould and Tara Copp   3 hours ago
12.02.2018
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U.S. President Donald Trump's second budget plan calls for the purchase of 10 new naval ships in FY19. (Staff)

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2019 budget is requesting $686.1 billion in military funding, with a focus on great power competition with Russia and China, the Pentagon announced Monday morning.

The request includes $617 billion in base budget funding and $69 billion in cap-exempt wartime funds, part of the administration’s expected $716 billion national security request (which includes Department of Energy nuclear programs).
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters Sunday the new two-year budget agreement would allow the military to be reshaped “back to a position of primacy.”

Click here for more on President Trump’s FY19 budget!

The administration’s new national security strategy is prioritizing strategic competition with near-peer adversaries over counterterrorism. With the respite budget instability, the Pentagon is rebuilding “to address the changing forms of warfare and to bring the current capabilities up,” Mattis said.

Congress raised budget caps for defense by $165 billion through fiscal 2019 under a bipartisan budget agreement Congress approved last week. That sets a clear path, versus the spending fights and budget instability that have dominated Congress for the past few years.

Trump’s second budget plan contains a manpower increase of 25,900. It also calls for the purchase of 10 new naval ships in fiscal 2019, and would enable the Air Force to grow from 55 combat squadrons to 58 over the next five years.

The budget plan also calls for more than $1 trillion in defense spending over the Obama administration’s 10-year plan, arguing that “failure to provide adequate funding to meet these defense objectives would embolden America’s enemies.”

Seeking savings, the budget continues a congressionally mandated 25 percent headquarters reduction, despite the the split of the office of the chief weapons buyer into two new offices.

The Department of Defense has requested funds to modernize equipment for a second Army armored combat team, to buy 10 combat ships, and to increase production of the F-35 and F/A-18 aircraft.

The budget earmarks $236.7 billion for acquisitions. Of that, $144.3 billion is for procurement and $92.4 billion is for research, development, test and evaluation. Major defense acquisition programs take up $92.3 billion.

One of the largest increases is for the vaguely worded “mission support activities,” which jumps $16.9 billion, from $49.9 billion in FY18 to $66.8 billion in FY19.
Twenty-eight percent of the entire investment budget request includes various departmental capabilities, such as live-fire test and evaluation, classified special programs and the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Organization — which is researching counter-drone technologies.

Major war-fighting investments
  • Mission support activities: $66.8 billion
  • Aircraft and related systems: $55.2 billion
  • Shipbuilding and maritime systems: $33.1 billion
  • Missiles and munitions: $20.7 billion
  • Ground systems: $15.9 billion
  • Science and Technology $13.7 billion
  • Missile defense programs: $12 billion
  • C4I systems: $10 billion
  • Space-based systems: $9.3 billion
Space
  • Five Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicles: $2 billion
  • Global positioning systems: $1.5 billion
Missile defense
  • 43 Aegis ballistic missile defense (SM-3): $1.7 billion
  • Ground-based Midcourse Defense: $2.1 billion
  • 82 THAAD ballistic missile defense: $1.1 billion
  • 240 Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3): $1.1 billion
Aircraft
  • 77 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters: $10.7 billion
  • 15 KC-46 tanker replacements: $30 billion
  • 24 F/A-18s: $2 billion
  • 60 AH-64E attack helicopters: $1.3 billion
  • Six VH-92 presidential helicopters: $0.9 billion
  • Eight CH-53K King Stallions: $1.6 billion
Shipbuilding
  • Two Virginia-class submarines: $7.4 billion
  • Three DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyers: $6 billion
  • One littoral combat ship: $1.3 billion
  • CVN-78 class aircraft carrier: $1.8 billion
  • Two fleet replenishment oilers: $1.1 billion
  • One expeditionary sea base: $0.7 billion
Ground systems
  • 5,113 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles: $2 billion
  • 135 M-1 Abrams tank modifications: $2.7 billion
  • 30 amphibious combat vehicles: $0.3 billion
  • 197 Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicles: $0.8 billion
https://www.defensenews.com/breakin...unveils-686-billion-military-budget-for-2019/
 

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New budget request includes at least $1.4 billion more for C4ISR systems
By: Mark Pomerleau   2 hours ago
12.02.2018
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The White House's budget request for fiscal 2019 includes $3.4 billion for unmanned systems such as the MQ-9, pictured above, which provides persistent attack and reconnaissance capabilities for combatant commanders and coalition forces involved in 24/7/365 combat operations abroad. (Airman 1st Class James Thompson/U.S. Air Force)

The Department of Defense would spend an additional $1 billion on C4ISR systems in fiscal 2019, according to the president’s budget request released Feb. 12

For fiscal 2018, the White House requested $8.6 billion in C4ISR systems. The fiscal year 2019 budget asks for $10 billion.
The request mirrors what the Pentagon’s senior leaders have been saying for years: that providing resilient networks and denying enemies the use of their networks is a top priority.

Of the $10 billion request, the budget breaks down C4ISR into sub categories to include;
- $5.7 billion for theater services
- $1.3 billion for technology development
- $1.2 billion for information security and assistance
- $1.1 billion for base communications
- $0.7 billion for automation.

“Investments will prioritize resilient, survivable, federated networks and information ecosystems from the tactical up to the strategic level,” budget documents for fiscal 2019 read. “Investments will also prioritize capabilities to gain and exploit information, deny competitors those same advantages, and enable the DoD to attribute non-kinetic attacks and to hold accountable adversaries attempting to exploit deniability.”

In the arena of advanced autonomous systems, the budget request notes the Defense Department “will invest broadly in military application of autonomy and artificial intelligence, including rapid application of commercial breakthroughs, to gain competitive military advantage.”

Unmanned systems
The budget request also notes that of $55.2 billion for aircraft related systems, the White House is asking for $3.4 billion for unmanned systems.

These unmanned systems include the Army’s and Special Operations Command’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle, the Air Force’s MQ-9 Predator, the MQ-4C Triton, RQ-4 Global Hawk and the Navy’s MQ-25 Stingray carrier based refueling aircraft.

Contractors submitted their bids late last year for the Stingray with the Navy expected to make an award on the highly anticipated program later this year.

The DoD budget requests $683.9 million for the Stingray. The documents note that the FY 19 program will begin to ramp up efforts on the airframe, propulsion, avionics and payload.

https://www.c4isrnet.com/it-network...s-at-least-14-billion-more-for-c4isr-systems/
 

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US Navy wants more sailors, jets and an extra ship in 2019
By: David B. Larter
2 hours ago
12.02.2018
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The destroyers Farragut, Jason Dunham and Winston S. Churchill participate in a strait transit exercise with the carrier Harry S. Truman. The Navy's FY19 budget request is a 7 percent increase over that of FY18. (MC2 Anthony Flynn/U.S. Navy).

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy is getting larger and adding an extra ship to its fleet in 2019, over its 2018 request, but the total shipbuilding budget request seems to make little headway toward a 355-ship fleet called for in a review last year.
The Navy’s base budget request is $151.4 billion, with $15 billion in overseas contingency operations funding split with the Marine Corps. The total Department of the Navy budget request is $194.1 billion, including OCO.

Overall, the budget request represents a 7 percent bump over fiscal 2018, according to budget documents provided by the Navy.

The service is asking for 21.9 billion for shipbuilding with a total of 10 ships, just one more than the nine requested in 2018. That number includes plans to buy two Virginia-class attack submarines, three Flight III Arleigh Burke destroyers and a single littoral combat ship.
The Navy plans to stop buying littoral combat ships and start buying the FFG(X) in 2020, according to the future-year defense planning projections in the budget request.

The Navy does plan to be close to 300 ships by the end of 2019, up from 280 ships as of Feb. 12, 2017, according to the Navy’s website. Much of the growth will come from littoral combat ships coming online. The service is also planning to maintain its pace of buying an aircraft carrier every five years, with a carrier slated for 2023 in the future-year defense planning projections, or FYDP.

The Navy is also planning to add sailors to its ranks, asking for a plus-up of about 7,500 sailors over last year’s request, setting 2019 end strength at 335,400. The Navy plans to continue to grow end strength through 2023, projecting growth of 344,800.

For aircraft, the Navy is asking for $19 billion, a figure which includes 24 F/A-18 Super Hornets in 2019 and has another 86 planned for the FYDP.

The Navy is planning to buy nine F-35Cs and the Marine Corps plans to pick up another 20 of the vertical-launch F-35Bs in 2019. The Navy’s buying strategy for the F-35C picks up in 2020 with 16 slated for purchase and then 24 every year from 2021 through 2023 for a total of 97 in the FYDP.

Procurement of the MQ-25 Stingray, an aerial unmanned tanker currently in development, is slated to begin in 2023, the last year of the FYDP.

The Navy also plans to keep its foot on the gas with the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine program, which includes two of the subs in 2019, the year the Navy plans to buy the first Columbia-class. The Columbia-class sub is destined to replace the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine.


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The Virginia-class attack submarine Minnesota is shown under construction on Nov. 1, 2012, at Huntington Ingalls Newport News Shipbuilding. (Newport News Shipbuilding via the U.S. Navy)

The Navy had been calling for maintaining the pace of two Virginians per year, even on years they plan to buy the Columbia-class boats — a departure from the service’s last 30-year shipbuilding plan.

Weapons, R&D and more
In the weapons category, the Navy is planning to buy eight of the new over-the-horizon weapons for the littoral combat ship in 2019, with a total of 64 planned in the FYDP. That missile is widely expected to be the Raytheon-Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile. A decision will likely be announced this summer.

The Navy plans to keep up the pace with the SM-6 missile, planning for 125 of them per year through the next five years. The budget also plans for 45 Evolved Seasparrow Missiles, with a total of 705 through the FYDP.

On the aviation side, the Navy plans to buy 25 long-range anti-surface missiles in 2019, with a total of 75 in the FYDP. There are none planned after 2021.

The plan also calls for 75 joint air-to-ground missiles with 838 total in the FYDP.

The Navy is investing $705 million in research and development for the Columbia-class submarine. For the Navy’s future frigate, the budget requests $135 billion, which the Navy says is needed for a “reassessment” of the capabilities needed. Funding will support warfare systems engineering, design and planning efforts.

The Navy’s total operations and maintenance funding is set at $41.4 billion, a drop from FY18 but still up from the last Obama budget, which asked for $38.2 billion.

The oft-shafted military construction budget for the Navy and Marine Corps is up from $1.8 billion to $2.5 billion.

https://www.defensenews.com/smr/fed...o-add-sailors-jets-and-an-extra-ship-in-2019/
 

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Army’s $182 billion FY19 budget request seeks to fill capability gaps
By: Jen Judson  
12.02.2018

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A new contract is pushing artillery guidance kit development forward, aiming to meet Army goals of greater range, accuracy and lethality for long-range fires. (Wendy Brown/Fort Bliss Bugle)

WASHINGTON — The Army’s $182 billion fiscal year 2019 budget request is a major funding boost over recent years and seeks to continue readiness recovery and fill capability gaps.

The Army’s top line is a $13 billion increase over the yet-to-be-passed FY18 defense budget of $169 billion. The service wants $148 billion in its base budget and $34 billion in overseas contingency operations in order to make continued readiness improvements and to meet its requirements laid out in the new National Defense Strategy.

The Army’s base budget is seeing a $9 billion increase over last year’s funding and the OCO account has risen by $4 billion.

As Defense News first reported, the Armywill increase its active force end-strengthby 4,000 in FY19 to 487,500 troops. The service will continue to increase its force by 4,000 troops each year to reach a force of 495,500 by 2021.

While the active Army will grow, the reserve forces will not. Yet, the reserves will grow in full-time support, meaning more “citizen soldiers” will be full-time. The Army National Guard and Reserves requested to have more full-time support within its forces because they believe it will help them with their readiness.

As a result, the military personnel budget request increased by $2.6 billion from $58 billion in the FY18 request to $60.6 in FY19.

Operations and maintenance
The operations and maintenance (O&M) account would grow by $3 billion in FY19 from $39 billion in FY18 to $42 billion in the new request.

The funding would cover the standing up and resourcing of three additional Security Force Assistance Brigades. The SFABs were a new creation in FY18. The brigades will serve a dual-purpose as day-to-day experts to COCOM commanders to train, advise and assist partner nations and will also serve as the framework of a brigade combat team that can rapidly expand should the need arise. Last year’s budget funded two SFABS.

The O&M request also covers the funding required to convert an Infantry Brigade Combat Team into an Armored Brigade Combat Team.
The account will also prioritize prepositioning and rotations in the Pacific and Europe.

Funding will cover 20 Combat Training Center rotations, 16 for the active Army and four for the Army National Guard.

Procurement
The FY19 $30 billion procurement account saw a rise over last year’s request by $3.3 billion.

The prioritization of funding within the account show the Army’s shift to a focus on armored combat against a near-peer adversary.
Weapons and tracked combat vehicles essentially doubled from last year’s request to $4.5 billion from $2.4 billion.

The Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicle and Stryker Combat Vehicle will all receive increases in modernization funding to improve mobility and lethality.

Paladin Integrated Management howitzer procurement will be sustained as well as the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle low-rate initial production.

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The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle low-rate initial production will be sustained under Trump's budget. (Photo courtesy of Oshkosh)

The missiles procurement line fell from last year’s request from $3.6 billion in FY18 to $3.4 billion in FY19. Ammunition funding rose from $1.9 billion to $2.2 billion.

The Army plans to buy critical missile rockets and 155mm artillery projectiles. The service plans to buy 148,287 155mm projectiles in FY19 compared to just 16,573 in FY18.

Other munitions are seeing a plus-up as well from Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems to Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) through a service life extension program and the man-portable Javelin missile.

The Army is drastically increasing its ammunition production, investing $22 billion from FY19 through FY22. Previously in the FY18 through FY22 five-year plan, the Army was planning to spend $13.3 billion. Years of budget cuts have led to a growing shortage of munition production to restore what the Army has expended in various contingencies.

The $4.9 billion FY19 request for aircraft sustains AH-64 Apache, UH-60 Black Hawks and CH-47 Chinook helicopter remanufacture and new build procurement.

The request also contains a funding increase for the Joint Battle Command-Platform to improve mounted mission command.

Research and Development
The Army’s research and development account rose from $9.4 billion in the FY18 request to $10.2 billion in FY19 mainly to address the Army’s top six modernization priorities.

The request boosts combat vehicle prototyping, Long-Range Precision Fires, synthetic training environment and short-range air defense funding.

LRPF is being developed to replace the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) capability with a maximum range greater than 400 kilometers. The budget requests provides $186 million to develop competitive prototyping and flight demonstrations.

The Army is scrambling to field short-range air defense capability, particularly in the European theater, and is seeking an interim solution ahead of developing a next-generation system. The FY19 request of $95 million will cover the fabrication of production representative articles and begins testing for an urgent materiel release.

And the service is laying the groundwork to field a Next-Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) and is beginning prototyping efforts. The Army is requesting $119 million for concept development, trade studies, testing and prototyping and demonstration of both manned and unmanned vehicles to contribute to future designs.

[FY18 budget request: The Army's top 10 modernization priorities]

There is increase in investment to develop a Mobile Protected Firepower capability in the FY19 request. The Army is asking for $394 million to build prototypes, ballistic hulls and test assets.

And the service will devote more funding toward the development of a Future Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (FTUAS). The request for $12 million would support experimentation that will inform requirements and analysis of alternatives.

The Army also realigned $234 million within its science and technology accounts to address the Army’s modernization priorities. The service will shift roughly $1 billion and $2 billion across the future years defense plan (FYDP) — or five-year budget plan — from near-term counterinsurgency (COIN) S&T efforts to longer-term projects aligned with the priorities.

https://www.defensenews.com/land/20...budget-request-seeks-to-fill-capability-gaps/
 

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US Air Force requests $156.3 billion in FY19, plans to retire B-1, B-2 fleets
By: Aaron Mehta
2 hours ago
12.02.2018
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The B-2 Spirit is a multirole bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions. (Airman 1st Class Michael S. Dorus/U.S. Air Force)

ROME — The fiscal 2019 budget for the U.S. Air Force plans to grow the service from 55 to 58 combat squadrons over the next five years, while buying dozens of high-end aircraft and preparing to retire the B-1 and B-2 bomber fleets as the military retools for the high-end competition forseen by the Pentagon.

The National Defense Strategy, released in January, focused on the potential for great power competition between the U.S. and Russia or China. And in any such battle, the U.S. Air Force would play a critical role; hence, the service’s request for $156.3 billion for FY19, a 6.6 percent overall increase from the FY18 request.

In FY19, the Air Force is requesting 48 F-35A fighter jets, 15 KC-46A tankers and one more MC-130J aircraft. Ther service is also investing $2.3 billion in research and development in the B-21 Raider bomber, up from the $2 billion request in the yet-to-be-enacted FY18 budget.

The latter is notable, as the Air Force has formally announced it will be retiring the B-1 and B-2 bomber fleets once the B-21 — which will be dual-capable for both conventional and nuclear missions — starts to come online in the mid-2020s.

The budget request also calls for investing in new engines for the B-52 fleet to keep that aircraft going through 2050 — making it an almost 100-year-old design.

“If the force structure we have proposed is supported by the Congress, bases that have bombers now will have bombers in the future,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said in a service release. “They will be B-52s and B-21s.”

The budget request also seeks to move forward with a new light-attack aircraft, likely either the Embraer-Sierra Nevada Corp. A-29 Super Tucano or the Textron AT-6, to provide a low-end capability.

Although that program seems at odds with the high-end challenge foreseen by the Defense Department, Susanna Blume of the Center for a New American Security believes it fits in nicely, as such an aircraft would remove the need to fly expensive, high-end aircraft for that mission.

Overall, the budget request calls for buying 258 F-35A fighters through the next five years. And in terms of space, the service is requesting $2 billion to fund five launches of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle.

The service also seeks to increase funding for F-16 modernizations to speed upgrades with the active electronically scanned array antennas, radar warning systems and Link 16 systems.

Naval warfare reporter David B. Larter contributed to this report from Washington.

https://www.defensenews.com/smr/fed...llion-in-fy19-plans-to-retire-b-1-b-2-fleets/
 

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Nuclear warhead agency receives 17.5 percent increase following Nuclear Posture Review
By: Aaron Mehta  
2 hours ago
12.02.2018

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The National Nuclear Security Administration is getting a big plus-up for nuclear warhead work in the fiscal 2019 budget request. (U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration)

ROME — The U.S. government’s nuclear warhead agency is scheduled to receive $15.1 billion in the Trump administration’s fiscal 2019 budget request, a 17.5 percent increase over the previous year’s request as the administration seeks to refresh and improve America’s nuclear arsenal.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, a semiautonomous arm of the Department of Energy, has oversight on nuclear warhead development, production and security. This is the second year the NNSA was slated for a budget increase, although the FY18 request — $13.9 billion, an increase of 7.8 percent over the FY17 omnibus level — has yet to be enacted.

The Nuclear Posture Review, released Feb. 2, called for the development of two new nuclear weapons capabilities, as well as heavy investment in infrastructure to support the nuclear arsenal. But just how NNSA would do in the new budget, which has sometimes struggled with funding in comparison to the broader defense budget, was unclear.

Of the NNSA’s budget, just more than $11 billion are dedicated to weapons activity. The agency is currently doing a massive refresh on its warhead programs, which involves refurbishing and redesigning five warhead variants.

Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office has warned that NNSA is underfunded for its needs.

The funding will be welcomed by proponents of the NNSA, particularly after comments from the previous administrator, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, that his agency was “at capacity.”

Notably, the NNSA could be in line for another plus-up in the FY20 budget. Speaking during the NPR rollout, Steve Erhart, acting undersecretary for nuclear security and NNSA administrator, said to expect “more fidelity in the budget request in the following year, FY20.”

https://www.defensenews.com/smr/fed...nt-increase-following-nuclear-posture-review/
 

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Budget boost in hand, Pentagon skips cost-saving base closure request
By: Joe Gould
2 hours ago
12.02.2018
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B-1 bombers are lined up at Ellsworth Air Force Base on Aug. 25, 2005. (Nati Harnik/AP)

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is taking a break from BRAC.

With its 2019 budget request, the Defense Department has skipped its annual request for a round of the base realignment and closure process. Whether BRACs save money is debatable, but their political unpopularity is certain.

The move comes as the president and Congress eased budget caps for national security by $165 billion through 2019. Hewing to Congress’ new preset top line, Monday’s request includes a record $617 billion in base budget funding and $69 billion in cap-exempt wartime funds.

“You get the gold star, we did not ask for that in this budget,” Pentagon Comptroller David Norquist said at a budget rollout on Monday. “We have asked for it a number of times in the past, without much success.”

The Pentagon is instead looking to both find common ground with Congress on reforms and further review excess facilities “to make better decisions about real property,” Norquist told reporters.

BRAC has been politically unpopular since the 2005 round cost significantly more money that initially expected. Lawmakers have expressed concern that their communities would be harmed if military bases were removed.

In October, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress a new BRAC could close about 22 percent excess capacity for an annual savings of $2 billion or more by 2027. But members of Congress have argued against that move, citing high upfront costs.

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s No. 2 Republican and chairman of its Readiness and Management Support Subcommittee, Sen. Jim Inhofe, of Oklahoma, told reporters last month a costly BRAC wouldn’t be prudent when the military is in “rebuilding mode.”

The Defense Department’s assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment, Lucian Niemeyer, said in an interview in November that the Pentagon would change the pitch to lawmakers: Instead of cost savings, it would emphasize stationing forces to maximize lethality.

https://www.defensenews.com/smr/fed...tagon-skips-cost-saving-base-closure-request/
 

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Trump budget shaves $1 billion from foreign military financing
By: Joe Gould
48 minutes ago
13.02.2018

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump is requesting $5.3 billion for the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Military Financing program for 2019, a $1 billion cut from what Congress is expected to budget.

The U.S. has frozen aid to Pakistan to pressure it to target of terrorist groups operating on its soil. What the administration does budget for Pakistan FMF — $80 million — is a steep drop from $350 million in 2017 and “contingent” on Islamabad taking action “to address areas of national divergence.”

All told, the administration is seeking $4.8 billion in base funding, and $570 million in budget-cap exempt wartime funds. The request is a $266 million increase over Trump’s fiscal 2018 request, but a $1 billion dip from what Congress appropriated in FY17, according to budget documents.

Congress has yet to pass fiscal 2018 appropriations, but a Senate proposal allots $6.3 billion.

A State Department official pointed to the increase over Trump’s FY18 proposal, which came “despite fiscal constraints.” The White House is proposing $39.3 billion for the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development, down from about $55 billion last year.

Israel will receive $3.3 billion, marking the first year of the new, 10-year memorandum of understanding between Washington and Jerusalem. Egypt and Jordan funding is flat at $1.3 billion and $350 million respectively.

Last year, the White House proposed converting the grants program to loans, an idea that faced headwinds in Congress. This year, the administration is proposing a $75 million flexible fund designated “global.”

“Where possible and appropriate, the U.S. government will seek to use loans to solidify partner-nation commitments and leverage U.S. assistance to the greatest effect,” budget documents say.

The remaining $172 million is divided between Lebanon, Tunisia, the Philippines, Colombia, Ukraine and Vietnam.

https://www.defensenews.com/smr/fed...es-1-billion-from-foreign-military-financing/
 

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The Army plans to spend an additional $150 million on blue force tracking systems next year
By: Mark Pomerleau  
37 minutes ago
13.02.2018

The Army wants to make substantial investments in its friendly forces tracking system, according to the president’s budget request for fiscal year 2019.

Specifically, the Army wants to spend more on its Joint Battle Command-Platform, which provides what’s known as blue force tracking, encrypted data and faster satellite network connectivity, according to Army budget documents.

The program would be accelerated to baseline across all Army formations and help solve problems related to mounted mission command, Davis Welch, deputy director for the Army budget, said during a briefing at the Pentagon Feb. 12.

According to the accompanying budget documents, the Army requested a total of $431 million for the program in fiscal 2019. That’s up from a total of $283 million during the fiscal 2018 budget. Moreover, the Army plans to procure 26,355 systems as opposed to 16,552 from the fiscal year 2018 budget.

Other science and technology investments Welch said the Army plans to make – which makes up 26 percent of the Army’s total $10.2 billion development budget – include advancing cyber and electromagnetic activities that will go toward emphasizing concept development in cyber operations.

The Army has been undertaking a program called cyber and electromagnetic activities support to corps and below, which seeks to assess through experiments at the National Training Center – as well as internal policy assessments – what types and at what echelons cyber and electronic warfare capabilities should reside at the tactical edge. In other words, what kinds of cyber capabilities do soldiers need on the battlefield.

Welch also noted that the development of systems for precision positioning, navigation and timing in a global positioning system denied battle space are also included in the service’s science and technology budget request.

https://www.c4isrnet.com/congress/b...ion-on-blue-force-tracking-systems-next-year/
 

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That is huge budget enough to construct a new army. It seems like Russia is really a step ahead of the US now.

Funding to deter Russia reaches $6.5B in FY19 defense budget request
By: Jen Judson  
14 minutes ago
13.08.2018

WASHINGTON — European Deterrence Initiative funding continues to grow in the fiscal year 2019 defense budget request, this time by $1.7 billion.
The FY19 request released Feb. 12 asks for $6.5 billion. The Pentagon requested $4.8 billion in FY18 and received $3.4 billion in FY17.

The EDI account — initially called the European Reassurance Initiative — was created to reassure Eastern European allies and deter Russia from further incursion into Europe following its illegal annexation of Crimea and continued aggression in the region.

The U.S. Army presence at the time of Russia’s move to take Crimea had dwindled from roughly 200,000 troops in Europe in the 1980s to around 33,000 in 2015. The Army had only two permanently stationed brigade combat teams, had closed over 100 sites since 2006 and was concentrated in Italy and Germany, nowhere near NATO’s eastern flank.

Now the Army has another heel-to-toe rotational Armored Brigade Combat Team, which first deployed last year, and has already rotated in the next ABCT to take its place.

And the U.S. Army is also part of a network of NATO Enhanced Forward Presence battle groups in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland set up in 2016 to deter Russia.

The increase in EDI funding in FY19 reflects the continued concern over Russian activity and behavior and also reflects the new National Defense Strategy’s focus on China and Russia.

The strategy lays out a world where great-power competition rather than counterterrorism will drive the Pentagon’s decision-making and force structure.

The Army has typically held the lion’s share of the funding and this year is no exception. It’s portion in FY19 is $4.6 billion.

Increased funding this year will cover more exercises, more forward presence and more improvement of the equipment that is forward-stationed.

Now that the funding is focused on deterrence of Russian aggression rather than reassuring allies, more will be injected into munitions, improving tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles and priming the pump for a larger rotational presence in Europe that would be episodic and not always predictable, a defense official told Defense News prior to the budget release.

The budget will not contain a request for additional troops in Europe in 2019, but more troops will be funded in 2020 when the Army begins a more dynamic employment of forces, which might include periodic exercises with multiple brigade combat teams and divisional assets, according to the official.

And like the episodic and unpredictable rotational deployments, exercises will take on the same characteristics and will start to test the ability to withdraw and use the Army’s prepositioned stock in Europe, which by 2020 will be fully upgraded and complete, the official said.

The EDI funding, as well as some base budget dollars, in FY19 would include equipment and weapon systems to complete a second set of Army prepositioned stocks in Europe, according to Davis Welch, the deputy director of the Army’s budget office. That equipment includes 40 Abrams tanks for $455 million, 61 Patriot Missile Segment Enhancement missiles for $261 million, 66 Armored Multi-purpose Vehicles for $230 million, 61 Bradley Fighting Vehicles for $205 million and High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System rockets for $171 million, he said during a budget briefing at the Pentagon on Feb. 12.

According to Pentagon budget documents, $200 million will go toward advising, training and equipping the Ukrainian military so the country can “conduct internal defense operations to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, while also supporting needed institutional transformation efforts.”

https://www.defensenews.com/land/20...a-reaches-65b-in-fy19-defense-budget-request/
 

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Marines Double HIMARS Spending, Get Manpower Boost in Budget Request
12 Feb 2018
By Hope Hodge Seck

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U.S. Marines with Task Force Southwest launch a rocket from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System toward a Taliban target in Sangin district, Afghanistan during Operation Maiwand Nine, Dec. 8, 2017. (U.S. Marine Corps/Sgt. Lucas Hopkins)

As a second rotation of Marine advisers begins work in Helmand province, Afghanistan, and other units continue to fight ISIS in the Middle East, a new budget request features a significant increase in big guns and artillery rockets -- as well as a plus-up of some 1,100 Marines.

The Marine Corps baseline budget request for fiscal 2019 is $27.6 billion, up from $26.3 billion the previous year. On top of that is another $1.3 billion in OCO funding, a figure that is staying steady from 2018.

There are some significant procurement outlays as the Marine Corps makes big investments in its CH-53K King Stallion, slated to replace the CH-53E Super Stallion heavy lift helicopter in coming years, and continues to pursue the amphibious combat vehicle 1.1.

The budget calls for eight CH-53K aircraft ahead of the helicopter's planned initial operational capability date in 2019.

There are also plans to buy 30 amphibious combat vehicles, up from 26 last year. Plans call for the Marine Corps to select a single maker for its ACV 1.1 this year, choosing between BAE Systems and SAIC.

The service is also investing heavily in the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, set to replace the Humvee for both the Army and Marine Corps. As research and development continue, the service is set to buy 1,642 of the vehicles, up from just 527 last year.

Among the most eye-catching planned buys, however, are in ground weapons systems. The served plans to buy $47 million in 155mm towed howitzers in the coming fiscal year, up from $20 million in Fiscal 2018 and $3 million the previous year.

The annual spending high mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, is set to more than double, with a planned investment of $134 million, up from $60 million in Fiscal 2018 and $31 million the year before.

The big HIMARS buy is due to the Marine Corps' plan to reactivate 5th Battalion, 10th Marines, as a HIMARS unit, Rear Adm. Brian Luther, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for budget, told reporters in a briefing Monday afternoon.

The battalion, which then operated 155mm howitzers, was formally retired in 2012 following a final 2010 deployment to Afghanistan as combat operations drew down.

The budget request, Luther said, "supports reactivation of [5/10] as a HIMARS rocket battalion and supports acquisition of HIMARS systems, support rocket equipment for the new battalion, and an associated increase with the total munitions requirements for rockets."

The Marine Corps is leaning hard into its long-range rocket and artillery capabilities, seeking to gain greater range and targeting capability with its existing systems.

Last October, the service fired a guided rocket from a HIMARS system aboard an amphibious ship in a first-ever test of the system's ability to destroy a target on land from a distance of roughly 43 miles. The test was a success.

Officials have since told Military.com they plan to conduct additional experiments with HIMARS and other long-range fires in range and capabilities tests.

Since late last year, HIMARS have also been employed in Helmand province, Afghanistan as an additional defense system at the disposal of the roughly 300-Marine advisory element now assisting local forces in pushing back the Taliban.

As for Marine Corps howitzers, their moment in the sun came near Raqqa, Syria in 2017. One Marine Corps general bragged that the element of several hundred Marines from 1st Battalion, 10th Marines "killed more ISIS than anyone" during a combat deployment of most of a year. The unit also reportedly burned out two howitzer barrels due to firing so many artillery rounds against the enemy.

As to the 1,100 Marines the service plans to add in Fiscal 2019, Marine Corps officials have indicated they want to use that end strength increase to continue growth of specialized fields, including cyber warfare and information operations.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller has said he's working to grow these communities and develop incentives to keep Marines in these roles, once they're fully trained and equipped.

"We are far and away the youngest force, far and away the lowest number of officers to enlisted. The Marine Corps of the future, we're going to get a little bit older. It takes longer to grow these people," Neller said. "So there's a business side ... We've got a way ahead of us here."

https://www.military.com/daily-news...r-boost-budget-request.html?ESRC=eb_180213.nl
 

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Air Force budget calls for more planes, drones — and a lot more bombs
By: Stephen Losey
13.02.2018

The Air Force’s proposed budget for fiscal 2019 calls for increasing the number of F-35As, KC-46 tankers, MQ-9 Reapers, and rebuilding its stockpile of precision-guided munitions such as the Hellfire missile and Joint Directed Attack Munition.

The 2019 request calls for $156.3 billion for the Air Force in controlled budget authority, a $9.8 billion increase from fiscal 2018. That excludes $37.9 billion in pass-through funding.

The Air Force’s budget request aims to increase readiness and lethality to help the service “confront the reemergence of great power competition,” Maj. Gen. John Pletcher, deputy assistant secretary for budget, said in a briefing with reporters at the Pentagon Monday.

After more than 16 years of wielding virtually unopposed air power in areas such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, the military is shifting its attention to countering threats and aggression from peer and near-peer nations with more advanced militaries, such as Russia, China and North Korea. And, Pletcher said, the advantages the Air Force has enjoyed until now are eroding.
“America’s military has no preordained right to victory in the air or on the battlefield,” Pletcher said.

In all, the budget calls for a slight increase in the Air Force’s total aircraft inventory, from 5,373 in 2018 to 5,426 in 2019. Flying hours would also increase, from about 1,422,959 hours in 2018 to 1,454,383 in 2019. Maj. Gen. Pletcher said that about 1.2 million of those flying hours will be for peacetime training exercises.

According to budget documents released by the Pentagon Monday, the Air Force hopes to acquire 48 F-35A fighters in 2019, two more than in 2018 and the same number as in fiscal 2017. F-35A funding would increase from $335 million to $550 million.

It will also keep KC-46A Pegasus tanker acquisitions steady at 15, the same as in the previous two years. And it also provides funding for improvements to the 4th-generation F-15 and F-16 fighters.

But MQ-9 Reaper acquisitions would increase considerably, from a total of 16 in 2018 to 29 in 2019. And with the MQ-1 Predator slated to be retired by this summer, Reaper acquisitions will become increasingly important.

The Air Force is also calling for a sizeable increase in its munitions purchases next year, to help it rebuild bomb stockpiles that have been depleted after more than a decade and a half of sustained combat operations.

The service is slated to procure 39,136 weapons in all in 2018, including 27,320 JDAMs, 3,629 AGM-114 Hellfires, and 7,312 Small Diameter Bombs. But the 2019 budget calls for acquiring a total of 48,512 weapons, including 36,000 JDAMS, 4,338 Hellfires, and 7,336 SDBs. This will bring munitions acquisition to “current industry capacity,” Pletcher said.

“We remain challenged by the pace of current operations,” Pletcher said.
And the budget seeks funding to rapidly acquire counter small unmanned aerial systems to detect, track and defeat enemy forces’ UASes, Pletcher said.

It also calls for increasing funding for the B-21 Raider bomber from $2 billion in 2018 to $2.3 billion in 2019. And as the B-21 comes online over the years, the Air Force said, it will gradually retire and phase out the older B-1 and B-2 bombers.

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The Air Force requested $2.3 billion in the fiscal year 2019 budget to continue development of the B-21 Raider, which is being built by Northrop Grumman. The bomber was named after the Doolittle Raiders, known for their surprise attack against Japan during World War II on April 18, 1942.

“If the force structure we have proposed is supported by the Congress, bases that have bombers now will have bombers in the future,” Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said in a Monday release. “They will be B-52s and B-21s.”

And if the Air Force will continue to rely on the venerable B-52H Stratofortress ― many of which are well over a half-century old ― that will also require more improvements. The Air Force is planning to replace the B-52’s engines, which will push upgrade funding from $112 million in 2018 to $280 million in 2019.

The budget would increase funding for the new Advanced Pilot Trainer, or T-X, from $106 million in 2018 to $265 million in 2019. Funding for a new combat rescue helicopter — the Air Force is planning for an initial production of 10 — would increase from $354 million to $458 million in 2019.

Training and recruiting funding would increase slightly, from $2.1 billion in 2018 to $2.2 billion in 2019. This would allow the Air Force to expand its combat training ranges, simulators, instructors, and other key infrastructure to improve its training capabilities, Pletcher said.
Training and recruiting funding would increase slightly, from $2.1 billion in 2018 to $2.2 billion in 2019. This would allow the Air Force to expand its combat training ranges, simulators, instructors, and other key infrastructure to improve its training capabilities, Pletcher said.

https://www.defensenews.com/news/yo...-for-more-planes-drones-and-a-lot-more-bombs/
 

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MDA $9.9 billion budget request geared to address North Korean threat
By: Jen Judson
13.02.2018

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s $9.9 billion fiscal 2019 budget request is up by $2 billion over last year’s, in part to address a rapidly emerging threat from North Korea.

MDA is beefing up its homeland missile defense system — the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system — with increased interceptors while adding radars to the Pacific to scan for threats. And MDA will invest in technology development to counter increasingly challenging threats such as hypersonic weapons, according to budget documents released Feb. 12.

North Korea is developing a long-range, nuclear-armed missile that would be capable of posing a threat to the United States. Just last year, the country launched two Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missiles that landed in the Sea of Japan. It also fired off the larger Hwasong-15 ICBM that could reach all of the continental United States, if it could fly at a lower trajectory.

North Korea is also developing a submarine-launched ballistic missile and has hundreds of Scud and No Dong missiles that can hit U.S. forces deployed in the region as well as U.S. allies.

The FY19 request supports the National Defense Strategy, which directs investments to include a focus on layered missile defense and disruptive capabilities for both homeland and regional defense against threats from such places as North Korea, according to Gary Pennett, MDA’s director of operations, who spoke to reporters at a budget briefing at the Pentagon on Feb. 12.

While there are many significant changes in the FY19 budget request compared to last year’s, it also continues to focus “on increasing system reliability,” Pennett said. “This year we have also made significant advancements in our engagement capability and capacity while at the same time continuing to do the research and development necessary to stay ahead of the evolving threat.”

The budget also likely reflects what is in the Missile Defense Review, ordered by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis last year, which is expected to be released eminently.

Defending the homeland

Within the FY19 MDA request are plans to design and build two discriminating radars in the Pacific. One radar will be located in Hawaii and another somewhere else in the Pacific.
MDA is requesting $95.8 million for the radar program.

“One of the things that we need to do is maintain custody of the threat from birth to death, and so with terrestrial-based radars we have to put them in locations that we can maintain custody,” Pennett explained. Therefore, the MDA decided to put a radar in Hawaii and also another one somewhere in the Pacific to provide that coverage.

MDA is calling the first radar the Homeland Defense Radar-Hawaii, or HDR-H, which will optimize “discrimination capability in the Pacific architecture” and increase “the ability of [ground-based interceptors] GBIs to enhance the defense of Hawaii,” according to budget documents. GBIs are the interceptors for the GMD system located in both Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, to protect the homeland against ICBM threats from North Korea and Iran.

MDA will competitively award the Hawaiian radar by the end of FY18, which is in line with its plans indicated in last year’s budget request. The HDR-H will be fielded in FY23 and integrated into the ballistic missile defense system framework. Military construction for the radar will begin in FY21.

The agency will also initiate a prime contract award and development engineering for a Homeland Defense Radar-Pacific, or HDR-P, in fiscal 2019. Site surveys on possible locations for the radar will happen in FY19, according to Pennett. Site options have yet to be narrowed down. Military construction is planned for FY22 with fielding expected in FY24.

As anticipated, the GMD system is getting a major boost — a total of $926.4 million in FY19 — with funding for 20 GBIs beyond the 44 already in place at Fort Greely and Vandenberg. The additional GBIs were requested by the Pentagon and the Trump administration and ultimately mandated by Congress in 2017.

The plan is to bring the total number of GBIs to 64 by 2023. MDA is also requesting funds to add two silos in a missile field and purchase six additional configuration 2 boost vehicles for the GBIs.

MDA is requesting $561.2 million to develop the Redesigned Kill Vehicle for GBIs. The RKV will increase the performance of the current exoatmospheric kill vehicle, or EKV, which has struggled in testing.

The EKV is a component of the GMD interceptors designed to destroy targets in high-speed collisions after separating from the booster rocket. While it was previously expected for the RKV to deploy in the 2020 time frame, MDA notes in budget documents that it expects the RKV to deploy in the 2021 time frame.

GMD will have another robust test in FY19, and MDA is asking for $81.9 million in FY19 for GMD testing to include the major test. The test in FY19, as Defense News previously reported, will be a salvo test where two GBIs will go up against an ICBM-level threat target.

MDA is planning to take receipt of Long Range Discrimination Radar hardware in FY19. Initial fielding will begin in 2020, leading up to an operational readiness test in 2022. The Long Range Discrimination Radar is a midcourse sensor that improves the discrimination capability of the ballistic missile defense system.

The agency is also asking for $149.7 million to extend the at-sea time of the sea-based X-band (SBX) radar in light of the increased missile threat from North Korea. According to Pennett, MDA is well on its way to increasing SBX time at sea from 120 days to 330 days, which was requested in last year’s budget.
However, in the FY18 request, MDA planned to examine the feasibility of deploying an SBX radar somewhere along the East Coast, and Pennett noted it is not something MDA is pursuing at the moment.

Regional defense
MDA is well on its way to implementing an Obama-era regional missile defense strategy known as the European Phased Adaptive Approach. MDA has an AN/TPY-2 radar deployed in Turkey, but is also standing up two Aegis Ashore missile defense sites in Romania and Poland. Romania’s is mission capable and Poland’s will be operational in FY18. The final phase will include delivering the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA to Aegis weapons systems and Aegis Ashore sites.

MDA is asking for $767.5 million for the Aegis BMD program to include integration of the SM-3 Block IIA. And the agency wants another $95.8 million for Aegis BMD testing.

The agency wants to spend $708.7 million to procure 37 SM-3 Block IB missiles and six SM-3 IIA missiles. Across the five-year budget plan, MDA wants to buy 204 SM-3 IB missiles and 39 SM-3 IIA missiles.

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System program would get $214.2 million for software upgrades to address emerging threats. The agency wants to address specific efforts associated with a U.S. Forces Korea urgent need that “provides enhance[d] THAAD capability against specific USFK threats.” Among those enhancements is a capability to “increase” THAAD’s “defended area,” according to budget documents. The description implies the funding could go toward the much-talked-about THAAD Extended Range, a possible upgrade that has yet to become an official requirement or effort.

MDA also plans to boost its THAAD interceptor procurement, asking for $874.1 million to procure 82 interceptors for a total buy of 196 interceptors across the five-year defense spending plan.

Technology development
MDA plans to tackle how to defend against hypersonic threats, which are emerging in countries considered by the U.S. to be adversaries, such as China and Russia.

The agency wants $120.4 million to make near-term sensor and control capability upgrades that can help defend against such threats. The plan will follow the Defense Science Board’s recommendations to develop and deliver “material solutions” informed by near-term technology demonstrations, according to the budget documents.

Solutions will include modification of existing BMDS sensors and the Command and Control, Battle Management and Communication system ― the network that ties together elements of the BMD system.

MDA will continue to work toward putting a laser on a UAV to address boost phase missile defense risks.

The Common Kill Vehicle program will get $189.8 million to develop technology capable of killing multiple threats from a single interceptor. MDA has awarded contracts to three major prime contractors to reduce the technical risk for the Multi-Object Kill Vehicle product development.

Space capability development crops up in the FY19 request, but despite pushes from Congress and other experts, the funding for space-based missile defense has not seen much of a boost, according to budget overview documents.

The MDA is asking for $16.5 million for the Space-based Kill Assessment, or SKA, experiment, “which will use a network of high sample rate, infrared sensors to deliver a kill assessment capability to the BMDS tailored for homeland defense,” the document reads. The FY18 request saw similar funding ― a total of $17 million.

The FY18 request also stated that the full SKA network was planned to be on orbit in FY17. The FY19 request says the network would be on orbit in FY18. Pennett said there have been some delays “in regards to getting the satellites up.”

The only other program highlighted for space-related efforts is the Space Tracking and Surveillance System.

MDA is requesting $37 million for satellite operations and sustainment. The Space Tracking and Surveillance Systems were launched in 2007 and continue to perform well, providing risk-reduction data for potential operational BMDS tracking and surveillance constellation, according to the budget overview. The program will also support “concept development activities for future space sensor architecture studies and analyses to address advanced threats,” the document states.

https://www.defensenews.com/land/20...equest-geared-to-address-north-korean-threat/
 
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