Congress needs the best available data about the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) resource tradeoffs between the dual priorities of transformation and fighting terrorism. In 2001 DoD developed a capabilities-based approach focused on how future adversaries might fight, and a risk management framework to ensure that current defense needs are balanced against future requirements. Because the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) is DoD’s centralized report providing data on current and planned resource allocations, this 2004 report assessed the extent to which the FYDP provides Congress visibility over projected defense spending, and implementation of DoD’s capabilities-based defense strategy and risk management framework. Figures and tables. This is a print on demand report.
In January 2003, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published The Long-Term Implications of Current Defense Plans (ADA410669), which was based on the fiscal year 2003 budget and the Department of Defense's Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) of that same year. CBO updated that analysis in July 2003 (ADA416284); its publication The Long-Term Implications of Current Defense Plans: Summary Update for Fiscal Year 2004 revised CBO's earlier work to take into account changes incorporated in the President's budget for fiscal year 2004 and the 2004 FYDP. Because it was a summary, the July 2003 paper omitted many of the detailed data displays contained in CBO's January 2003 study. This briefing updates those omitted displays consistent with the 2004 FYDP. The briefing does not incorporate changes to the FYDP resulting from Congressional action on the President's fiscal year 2004 budget request.
In their annual debate about the defense budget, Members of Congress focus primarily on whether the President's budget request will meet the military's immediate spending needs. But programs to develop weapon systems often run for a decade or more before those systems are fielded, and other policy decisions have long-term implications; thus, decisions made today can influence the size and composition of the nation's armed forces for many years to come. Recognizing the need for a longer view, the Senate Appropriations Committee's Defense Subcommittee requested that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analyze the long-term implications of the Administration's current plans for defense. This analysis examines those implications both for budgetary resources and for ages and inventories of weapon systems. In the five years from 1997 to 2002, the annual U.S. defense budget grew from $274 billion to $345 billion. (All dollar amounts in this study represent total obligational authority expressed in 2002 dollars.) The defense program outlined by the Bush Administration for fiscal year 2003 and the following four years (the 2003 Future Years Defense Program, or FYDP) anticipates additional growth, with the defense budget averaging $387 billion over the 2003-2007 period and reaching $408 billion in 2007. If that program continued as currently envisioned, the demand for defense resources would continue to increase through 2012, CBO projects, and would average $428 billion a year between 2008 and 2020. Costs for day-to-day operations (running units, maintaining equipment, and providing pay and benefits to military personnel) would grow from $222 billion in 2002 to more than $280 billion by 2020. Demands for investment resources (primarily to develop and purchase new equipment) would rise from $ 110 billion in 2002 to $164 billion in 2012 and then decline to about $134 billion by 2020.
Contents: Projections of Funding for Operation and Support; Projections of Funding for Investment; and Alternative Defense Programs. Tables and Figures.
In most years, the Department of Defense (DoD) provides a five- or six-year plan, called the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP), associated with the budget that it submits to the Congress. Because decisions made in the near term can have consequences for the defense budget well beyond that period, this report has examined the programs and plans contained in DoD's FYDP and projected their budgetary impact in subsequent years. For this analysis, the report used the FYDP provided to the Congress in April 2010, which covers fiscal years 2011 through 2015 the most recent plan available when this analysis was conducted. The report's projections span 2011 through 2028. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand report.
Most of the literature on public sector budgeting ignores defense budgeting, even though aircraft, ships, tanks, smart weaponry, skilled crews, electronically boosted infantry, and other facets of national defense represent a large part of the federal government's discretionary spending. The budget
