Interesting article on 2010 Defense Budget

[Jennicut]

Fact Sheet on Proposed Fiscal Year 2010 Defense Budget:

This proposal will help service members and their families.

* The budget proposal will fully protect and properly fund the growth in military end strength.

o Growing the size of the Army and Marine Corps will give service members needed respite between deployments to rest and retrain while giving them and their families more predictability in the deployment cycle.

* The proposal will also provide a substantial increase in funding to better care for service members upon their return home.

o The Pentagon will increase overall spending on programs related to post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and traumatic brain injury by $300 million. It will also increase overall spending for research and development programs for battlefield injuries by $400 million over last year

* Funding will be increased by $200 million for improvements in child care, spousal support, lodging, and education for military families.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/04/fact_sheet_defense.html


I think Obama and Gates gave some increased funding to some of the areas Bush neglected. But then increased in the following areas as well:

Grow the Force Initiative: Increasing the size of the Army, Marine Corps, and special operations forces will relieve stress on these forces.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: UAVs are in high demand in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Littoral Combat Ship: LCS is a key capability for presence, stability, and counterinsurgency operations in coastal regions.

F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: The F-35 is less costly than the F-22 and gives the United States the capability to maintain air superiority for the foreseeable future.

Missile defense: Funding for proven theater missile defense technologies will increase while funding for systems with technical problems will be canceled.


Obviously, some stuff can be cut. Good increases in some areas, some unneeded in other areas. Obviously ending the wars will lead to the biggest cuts in defense spending.