Editor's Foreword

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Table 7 US National Defense Budget Function 1 and other selected budgets 2 1992,
2000–2010
(US$bn) National Defense
Budget Function
Department
of Defense
Atomic
energy
Defense
Activities
the go-ahead for a broader interpretation of war costs
when he issued new guidance to service chiefs that
they could include requirements appropriate to the
‘longer war on terror’ in their supplemental requests,
rather than limiting requests specifically to the annual
costs incurred by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The effect of this change is illustrated by the subsequent
jump in supplemental procurement requests,
which rose from US$18bn in FY2005 to US$64bn
in FY2008, and although some of this increase may
reflect the cost of additional force protection and
replacement of ‘stressed’ equipment, much may be in
response to the new guidance. For example, requests
for ‘resetting’ military equipment used in overseas
operations became increasingly difficult to interpret.
Resetting is usually limited to the replacement
of war-worn equipment; however, the Pentagon’s
definition of reset has expanded significantly and
now includes not only replacing battle losses (typically
10% of the total) and equipment repair (about
half), but also recapitalisation that typically upgrades
current equipment, and the repair and replacement
of pre-positioned equipment stored overseas that
has been tapped to meet war needs. Given that the
army, in particular, had been planning to recapita-
Department
of
homeland
Security
Veterans
Administration
Fy BA Outlay BA Outlay BA BA (Gross) BA
Total
Federal
Government
Outlays
27
Total Federal
Budget
Surplus/
Deficit
1992 295.1 298.3 282.1 286.9 10.6 n.a. 33.9 1,381 -290
2000 304.1 294.5 290.5 281.2 12.2 13.8 45.5 1,789 236
2001 335.5 305.5 319.4 290.9 13.0 16.4 47.6 1,863 128
2002 362.1 348.5 344.9 331.9 14.9 30.5 52.1 2,011 -157
2003 456.2 404.9 437.9 387.3 16.4 30.8 59.1 2,160 -377
2004 490.6 455.9 471.0 436.5 16.8 31.6 60.5 2,293 -412
2005 505.7 495.3 483.9 474.1 17.9 100.7 69.2 2,472 -318
2006 617.1 521.8 593.7 499.3 17.4 32.4 71.0 2,655 -248
2007 625.8 551.2 602.9 528.6 17.2 39.7 79.5 2,728 -160
2008 696.3 616.1 674.7 594.6 16.6 50.6 88.3 2,982 -458
2009 est. 693.6 690.3 663.7 664.9 22.9 45.3 97.4 3,997 -1,841
2010 est. 692.8 712.8 667.7 685.1 17.7 41.4 110.1 3,591 -1,258
Notes
FY = Fiscal Year (1 October–September)
1 The National Defense Budget Function
subsumes funding for the DoD, the Department
of Energy Atomic Energy Defense Activities
and some smaller support agencies (including
Federal Emergency Management and Selective
Service System). It does not include funding for
International Security Assistance (under International
Affairs), the Veterans Administration,
the US Coast Guard (Department of Homeland
Security), nor for the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA). Funding for civil
projects administered by the DoD is excluded
from the figures cited here.
2 Early in each calendar year, the US government
presents its defence budget to Congress for the
next fiscal year, which begins on 1 October.
The government also presents its Future Years’
Defense Program (FYDP), which covers the
next fiscal year plus the following five. Until
approved by Congress, the Budget is called the
Budget Request; after approval, it becomes the
Budget Authority.
lise equipment and modernise pre-positioned equipment
stocks to match its new modular configuration,
it is questionable whether these costs were indeed
wartime requirements.
In addition to US$130bn for DoD activities, the
FY2010 war request includes US$6.4bn for the State
Department’s foreign and diplomatic operations and
US$2.1bn for Veterans Administration medical costs
for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi
Freedom veterans. On the face of it this would suggest
that overall war funding is decreasing from a peak
of US$185bn in FY2008, a consequence of the surge
strategy in Iraq that year, to US$150bn in FY2009
and US$130bn in FY2010. However, given that the
president has authorised a further 30,000 troops for
Afghanistan, it seems certain that he will have to
return to Congress with an additional supplemental
request. In a January 2009 update, the Congressional
Budget Office projected that additional war costs for
FY2010 to FY2019 could range from US$388bn (if
deployed troops fall to 30,000 by 2011) to US$867bn
(if troop levels only fall to 75,000 by 2013), meaning
that funding for Iraq, Afghanistan, and other OCOs
could total US$1.3–1.8tr for 2001–19, depending on
the scenario.
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