Thursday, February 08, 2007

Pay raise highlights new budget requests

WASHINGTON — A 3-percent pay raise for service members, an increase in ground forces and continued funding of the global war on terrorism are on the table now that President Bush has delivered his fiscal 2008 defense budget request and 2007 emergency supplemental request to Congress today.

The total DoD 2008 budget request is pegged at $481.4 billion. This represents an 11.3-percent increase over fiscal 2007.

Strategic modernization receives the lion’s share of the budget request, with $176.8 billion. Readiness and support will receive $146.5 billion and Military pay and health care are pegged at $137 billion or 28 percent of the request. Family housing and facilities improvement is looking at $21.1 billion.

Under the proposal, the active-duty Army will grow to 547,400 Soldiers by the end of fiscal 2012. The service now has 484,400 soldiers. The increase will allow the Army to field 48 brigades – up from 42 – and give Soldiers two years at their home stations for every year deployed.

The Marine Corps will grow to 202,000 by fiscal 2012 from 175,000 authorized today. Officials said the move will fill out the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force and give the Marines the same 2-to-1 ratio home-to-deployment ratio the Army has — in this case, 14 months home for every seven months deployed.

The budget request also asks for $1.7 billion for permanent Army and Marine Corps end-strength increases.

If the budget is enacted as submitted, the Army will receive $130.1 billion in fiscal 2008, for an increase of more than 20 percent. The Navy will receive $119.3 billion, up 9 percent. The Marine Corps will receive $20.5 billion, up 4.3 percent, and the Air Force will receive $136.6 billion; an increase of 8.2 percent.

The Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter is budgeted at $3.8 billion for 20 aircraft. A further $743 million is budgeted for research and development.

The Navy will receive 24 F/A-18E/F Hornet jet fighters at $2.4 billion and 18 E/A-18G Growler aircraft at $1.3 billion. The Growler is the electronic warfare variant of the Hornet.

The fiscal 2007 emergency supplemental request will fund operations through Sept. 30. The request is for $93.4 billion, with $39.3 billion going to warfighting, supplies, support and maintenance. Also, the supplemental request provides $10.4 billion to defeat improvised explosive devices.

The supplemental budget request asks for $3.8 billion to train and equip the Iraqi security forces and $5.9 billion for Afghan security forces.