The Virginian-Pilot February 06, 2007
Bush proposes huge increase in military spending
By Dale Eisman
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration unveiled a 2008 defense budget on Monday that would push military spending to its highest levels since World War II - nearly $2,100 for each American - and bring the cost of the nation's five-year war on terrorism to about $600 billion.
The budget plan includes a 3 percent pay increase for service members and would finance the addition of 7,000 soldiers and 5,000 Marines to the force next year. It also would spend far more on new weapons, including the replacement of aircraft, tanks, trucks and other equipment damaged or destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Under the proposal, the number of sailors and Air Force personnel would decline, but seven new ships - including an aircraft carrier -
would be built.
In all, President Bush wants $623.1 billion for the military in 2008 - $141.7 billion for the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and other anti-terrorism efforts, plus $481.4 billion for expenses unrelated to the wars.
Laid end to end, a string of 623.1 billion one-dollar bills would stretch for 59 million miles.
If approved by Congress, the request would boost U.S. defense outlays next year past the combined totals of the rest of the world, according to figures compiled by Globalsecurity.org, a Web site that tracks worldwide defense spending.
The administration also asked Monday for an additional $93.4 billion for war expenses expected this year; that's on top of $70 billion Congress already has appropriated.
With Democrats in control of Congress for the first time in more than a decade and public unease over the course of the war in Iraq growing, the Bush plan is expected to get tough scrutiny on Capitol Hill.
"The sums involved in the defense budget requests are staggering," said Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
He promised careful examination of "how much of this increase truly goes to enhancing our readiness and future defense capabilities and how much is being spent to further the fight in Iraq."
For Hampton Roads, the budget includes more than $5.5 billion for two major shipbuilding programs at Northrop Grumman's Newport News shipyard. Nearly $3 billion was budgeted to begin construction of a new aircraft carrier, the Gerald R. Ford, and $2.5 billion was provided for work on an attack submarine.
The carrier, first in a new series of nuclear-powered flattops, will be built entirely at Newport News. Work on the submarine is divided between the local shipyard and a competitor in Connecticut.
Rear Adm. Stan Bozin, the Navy's budget director, noted that the carrier's costs are being spread over several years. The ship is expected to cost $10.5 billion to construct, with $3.2 billion going toward research and development of a new carrier design.
The Nimitz-class carriers now in service cost about $5 billion each. Those ships carry nearly 6,000 sailors and airmen, roughly one-third more than the Navy expects will be needed on future flattops.
The Navy budget calls for seven new ships in 2008, the same figure the service projected last year.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chief of naval operations, has made a stable shipbuilding program one of his top objectives; shipbuilders have complained that annual fluctuations in the Navy's plans force them to hire and fire workers and drive some subcontractors into other, more reliable product lines.
Other major items in the budget plan include:
• A reduction of more than 9,000 sailors and airmen, bringing the Navy's total manpower down to 328,400 by October 2008. That's 37,500 fewer than in 2005. Bozin said the service is shifting some jobs formerly done by sailors to civilians and is using automated systems on its new ships to eliminate other jobs.
• A substantial increase in production of the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter-bomber, the Navy's workhorse aircraft. The 2008 budget calls for the purchase of 24 Super Hornets, but Bush has proposed buying 12 more from money set aside for the war on terrorism.
Bozin said the additional planes will replace Navy jets that are being used heavily in Iraq and Afghanistan, and getting worn out ahead of schedule.
• A variety of long-term cuts to other Navy aircraft programs, including the radar-jamming E/A-18 Growler, the Marine Corps' MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport, and the MH-60 helicopter. Bozin said some of the aircraft cuts were made because of cost concerns, others are attributed to development delays and changes in the Navy's plans.
• $910 million for three additional littoral combat ships, a key component of the 313-ship fleet Mullen hopes to fashion by 2020. The Navy wants a total of 55 littoral combat ships and is testing a pair of competing designs for the line.
Work on the third ship in the series - being built by Lockheed Martin - was suspended last month because of spiraling costs. The ships initially were priced about $250 million per hull but the new budget puts the cost of each at about $303 million.
• A controversial proposal to shift $1.9 billion in health care costs now paid by the Pentagon to military retirees participating in the Defense Department's Tricare health insurance program.
Dr. William Winkenwerder, the Pentagon's top health official, said the plan is essentially the same as one submitted last year and rejected by lawmakers. It would double or triple the annual health insurance premiums paid by thousands of service retirees younger than 65.
Those premiums have not been adjusted in 13 years, Winkenwerder reminded reporters Monday, while the Pentagon's cost for Tricare's benefits has grown by 8 to 11 percent per year since 2001.
A coalition of retiree organizations torpedoed the Pentagon proposal last year, but lawmakers created a task force to study the military health system.
• $288 million for a variety of construction projects at military facilities around Hampton Roads.
The total includes $11.5 million for an air crew training facility and $53.8 million for a helicopter hangar and airfield improvements at Norfolk Naval Station; $108.5 million for training and operations facilities for Navy special operations forces at Dam Neck in Virginia Beach; and $99 million for special operations facilities at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base.
© Copyright 2007, The Virginian-Pilot
