It looks like the worst may be over for the DoD budget wise. For fiscal year 2015, the services will have a base budget of $496 billion and an overseas contingency (war money) of $79 billion. Moving into 2016 and beyond planners will shift the OCO dollars into the base budget, rather than return it to the Treasury. So, for FY 2016 planners are projecting a base budget of $535 billion and increasing at an annual rate of about 2% per year. If we look at that projected growth in real terms, net of inflation, 2016 – 2019 will remain flat in terms of purchasing power for the Pentagon. Barring any unforeseen altercations this will put pressure on senior level managers at the Pentagon to choose wisely. Congress may bump that a little but this is what the President and DoD are asking for.
FOG HORN 