$686 Billion Defense Dollars. Hopefully, it is Spent Well.

President Trump Wants $686 Billion for the Military. Here's How He Plans to Spend It

Trump's budget request would add ships to the Navy, fund fighter jets, and boost missile defense spending.

 From article (President Donald Trump’s $686 billion defense request for the coming fiscal year would propel the Navy toward a new goal of 355 ships, restore major funding for a Boeing Co. fighter jet favored by the president and boost missile defense spending to counter threats from North Korea and Iran.

On its voyage to a 355-ship Navy, the budget plan envisions building the fleet to 299 vessels by the end of fiscal 2019, which begins Oct. 1, and 326 by 2023. The Navy has 280 ships today, but some are nearing the end of their useful life.

Missile defense spending, spurred by Trump and supported by lawmakers over fears of North Korea’s accelerated ballistic missile and nuclear programs, would increase about 25 percent over the Obama administration’s last projected numbers for fiscal 2019 — to $9.92 billion, or $1.91 billion more than previously planned. It would bankroll 20 new interceptor missiles and silos, a new “homeland defense radar” in Hawaii and, for the first time, a “salvo” test to fire two interceptors at once at an incoming target.

Trump has praised Boeing’s Super Hornet, which former President Barack Obama’s administration sought to phase out. By contrast, Trump has at times criticized the costs of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35, the most expensive U.S.. weapons system.

The Trump plan calls for adding 24 Boeing Co. F/A-18E/F Super Hornet jets in fiscal 2019, and 110 jets through 2023, as previously reported by Bloomberg News. The Obama administration had proposed ending purchases of the plane this year.

The Pentagon is requesting funding for 77 F-35s for fiscal 2019, three fewer than projected in the the last Obama plan. The Trump plan projects 84 of the fighters for fiscal 2020, the same as the last Obama plan, and 98 in 2021, or one fewer.

In addition, the Air Force plans $16.8 billion in funding through 2023 for the new B-21 bomber being built by Northrop Grumman Corp., including $2.3 billion next year for continued research.

The $686 billion includes $597.1 billion in base defense funding — the most ever if enacted — plus $89 billion in a war-fighting account. Of the $89 billion, $17 billion would finance readiness requirements “and other support activities” normally funded in the base budget, the Pentagon said.

The combined total falls short of the Obama administration’s post-Cold War peak of $691 billion in fiscal 2010, which included $163 billion in war spending. Trump’s overall national security package — which includes Energy Department nuclear weapons programs and defense-related activities at the FBI and smaller agencies — would total $716 billion.

The budget requests $6.5 billion for what’s now being called the “European Deterrence Initiative,” up from $4.7 billion requested last year, to increase the U.S. military presence in Europe, conduct more exercises with NATO partners and preposition equipment. It was previously called the “European Reassurance Initiative.”)

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