DoD sets priorities with 2011 budget, QDR - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

DoD sets priorities with 2011 budget, QDR

The Pentagon’s double-barreled preview of spending plans unveiled Monday asks Congress for an additional $15 billion in fiscal 2011 — an increase of 2.2 percent — over last year’s total for baseline spending and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

As the White House announced last week, the Pentagon is proposing a 1.4 percent pay raise, a percentage equal to the most recent increase in the Employment Cost Index. The raise, if approved, would be the lowest in the history of the all-volunteer military.

All told, the Pentagon is asking for $708.3 billion, $159.3 billion of which would go to fund operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to budget documents released Monday.

The overall budget, the Pentagon said, “continues progress toward a better balance” in the U.S. defense posture — an effort, begun last year, to boost spending on capabilities needed for the current wars and contingencies.

That translates to more spending on helicopters — $9.6 billion — as well as increases for special operations, electronic warfare capabilities, and the procurement and deployment of more unmanned aerial vehicles — all points of emphasis in the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review, which was also released Monday along with the proposed 2011 budget.

The budget also calls for $25.1 billion for ship procurement, and $15.1 billion for fixed-wing aircraft — three-quarters of which would buy 42 F-35 tactical aircraft.

Funding for resources devoted to service member and family support programs would increase 41 percent over the current fiscal year, the Pentagon said. The 2011 budget also will mark the start of a five-year plan to replace and recapitalize more than half of the 194 Department of Defense Dependent Schools.

The budget also includes increased spending for the care of service members wounded in combat, a $100 million boost to $2.2 billion; for “enhanced care and support” of the wounded, ill and injured; and for research and development into traumatic brain injury and psychological injuries, as well as treatment. The increase will provide more than 1,000 additional personnel for Wounded Warrior Support, the Pentagon says.

That’s just a fraction of the $50.7 billion the Pentagon wants to fund the Military Health System, which currently services 9.5 million eligible beneficiaries — active-duty service members and their families, military retirees and their families, dependent survivors and certain eligible members of the reserve components.

The Pentagon repeatedly has expressed concerns about the rising cost of health care, which Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis says is growing at a pace “significantly above the rate of inflation.”

The QDR, billed as a “comprehensive examination” of all aspects of defense strategy, force structure and budget plans, contains few concrete proposals in the personnel area. In addition to stressing wounded warrior care, family care and dwell time issues, it calls for allowing the services “to pursue innovative ways to retain quality personnel,” citing the Marine Corps’ Selective Re-enlistment Bonus program.

The Pentagon also calls for a new emphasis on stability operations, counterinsurgency and building partner capacity skill sets in its leadership training programs.

The Pentagon also seeks relief for reservists pushed by the 9/11 attacks into serving as an operation reserve, versus the strategic role they long served.

“Our nation must have a force generation model that provides sufficient strategic depth,” the QDR states. “As the operational environment allows, the department will seek ways to rebalance its reliance on the reserve component to ensure the long-term viability of a force that has both strategic and operational capabilities.”