The 2009 Future Years Defense Program: Implications and Alternatives
(excerpted from the Congressional Budget Office; issued February 4, 2009)
Statement of J. Michael Gilmore, Assistant Director, Congressional Budget Office before the Committee on the Budget, U.S. House of Representatives
February 4, 2009
The 2009 FYDP, transmitted in April 2008, reflects changes to the department’s programs and priorities since February 2007. Overall, the budgetary implications of DoD’s current plans are similar to those described in CBO’s previous projections.
Carrying out plans proposed in the FYDP would require sustaining annual defense funding over the long term at higher real (inflation-adjusted) levels than those that occurred at the peak of the buildup in the mid-1980s.
Four factors in particular account for the projected high level of defense spending under the FYDP:
- Plans to purchase more new military equipment over the next several years and then to sustain that rate of procurement over the longer term;
- Plans, as part of military transformation, to develop and eventually produce weapon systems that provide new capabilities—systems whose estimated costs are also increasing;
- Plans to increase the size of military forces and the growing costs of pay and benefits for DoD’s military and civilian personnel; and
- Plans to meet the rising costs of operation and maintenance (O&M) for aging equipment as well as for newer, more complex equipment.
In CBO’s projection, defense resources will average about $549 billion annually (in constant 2009 dollars) from 2014 to 2026.
Click here for the full statement (28 pages in PDF format) on the CBO website.
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