Military Wish List and Duncan Hunter

Services seek $30B in additional funds

The Airforce Times

By William Matthews - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Feb 14, 2008 20:18:54 EST

Just four days after asking Congress the largest defense budget since World War II — $705.7 billion to be spent in 2009 — the U.S. military services each sent wish lists worth billions more.

In all, the services say the big budgets they just delivered to lawmakers leave them $30 billion in “unfunded requirements.”

The Air Force lays claim to more than half that amount, submitting an 11-page, $18.7 billion list of items it wants, ranging from more F-22 stealth fighters and C-17 cargo planes to trainer aircraft shelters and vehicle barriers.

The Navy requests $4.6 billion more, the Army $3.9 billion and the Marine Corps $1.3 billion.

The services submitted these wish lists in response to an invitation from Rep. Duncan Hunter, the senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee. Hunter released the lists Feb. 14.

In a Jan. 15 letter to each of the service chiefs, Hunter said, “It goes without saying that the fiscal year 2009 defense budget will not include full funding” for everything the services say they need.

But he said the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism make it “more important than ever that Congress be aware of these unfunded requirements.”

Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps each sent Hunter a reply thanking him for the opportunity and enclosing one to three pages of requests.

The Air Force sent a shopping list expensive enough to boost its 2009 budget by 13 percent. The list includes:

* $3.9 billion for 15 C-17s.

* $1.1 billion for four F-22s plus advanced procurement funding for 24 F-22s.

* $1 billion for to hire aircraft maintenance workers.

* $380 million for five Joint Strike Fighters and advanced procurement for six others.

* $616 million for five Global Hawk unmanned spy planes.

* $668 million to speed up depot maintenance of aircraft and engines.

* $643 million to buy seven C-37B and one C-40 aircraft.

* $438 million for F-15 modifications.

* $748 million worth of base construction.

The Navy wants $1.7 billion to buy an additional LPD-17 amphibious ship, $941 million for an additional T-AKE cargo ship and $548 million for improvements to maritime patrol aircraft.

The Marine Corps wants Humvees, helicopters, howitzers and other battlefield gear.

And the Army, similarly, wants $1.6 billion worth of Humvees; $625 million worth of “driver vision enhancement” equipment; and $489 million worth of heavy trucks, trailers, palletized loading systems, night vision goggles and other combat gear.

If past unfunded requirements lists are any indicator, the services have a good chance of getting much of what they are asking for, said Winslow Wheeler, a former Senate staffer and defense budget specialist.

The lists make budget analysts cringe because the items “are totally unevaluated,” Wheeler said. “They have not been vetted by the Office of the Secretary of Defense or the Office of Management and Budget.” Instead, they go straight from the service chiefs to members of Congress.

“The real value of the lists is that they give members of Congress who want to plus up spending a reason to do it,” said Christopher Hellman, a defense budget analyst for the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

Armed with a service chiefs’ requests, lawmakers can battle more forcefully for spending that creates jobs in their districts, he said.