Pentagon rolls out 718 Billion USD budget for fiscal year 2020
The U.S. Department of Defense on Tuesday rolled out its 718.3 billion U.S dollar budget request for fiscal year 2020, with a substantial hike in war funding aimed at circumventing budget gap.
“This strategy-driven budget makes necessary investments in next-generation technology, space, missiles, and cyber capabilities,” acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said in a statement Tuesday. “The operations and capabilities supported by this budget will strongly position the U.S. military for great power competition for decades to come.”
The Pentagon wants $72.4 million to establish a headquarters for Trump’s proposed Space Force. The figure represents about 0.01 percent of the Pentagon’s budget. Of the total $14.1 billion for space investment, about $1.6 billion will fund improvements to space-based missile warning capabilities, a missing link in America’s layered missile defense system.
The Pentagon said it needed about 165 billion dollars in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund, $25.4 billion for direct war requirements, $41.3 billion for enduring requirements, and further $97.9 billion to compensate for limits set for the base budget.
Approximately $30 billion will fund nuclear weapons programs under the Department of Energy as well as other agencies.
The budget request will pay for a 3.1-percent military pay raise, 78 F-35 joint strike fighters, the Columbia class ballistic missile submarine program, one Ford class aircraft carrier, three Virginia class submarines and three Arleigh Burke destroyers, among other hard and software, according to a breakdown provided by the Pentagon.
The U.S. Congress approved 716 billion dollars in defense spending for fiscal year 2019, and about 700 billion dollars for fiscal year 2018.
