Bush needs $515bn for Pentagon

2008-02-02 13:21

Washington - United States President George W Bush will seek $515.4bn for the Pentagon for fiscal 2009, up 7.5% from the funds Congress approved for this year, according to Pentagon documents.

In his final budget request on Monday, Bush also will ask Congress for $70bn in "emergency" funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the documents showed.

The budget request would include $183.8bn to modernise the military and $20.5bn to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps - the two services most strained by Iraq and Afghanistan.

In fact, much of the fiscal 2009 budget request aimed to address that problem by retraining personnel and fixing or replacing equipment.

Big-ticket weapons systems

According to the budget documents, the Pentagon would seek to spend $158.3bn to sustain critical combat and support operations. That would be 10.4% above the amount Congress approved for fiscal 2008.

It would include $68bn to maintain troops' combat readiness, $11.8bn for equipment maintenance and repair, and $10.7bn to recruit, retain and train troops with skills considered critical to defence requirements.

The budget request would also include funds for big-ticket weapons systems and equipment, including the Army's Future Combat Systems modernisation programme and maritime assets for the Navy, the documents showed.

For the Navy, Bush would request funds for two littoral combat ships - shore-hugging ships that suffered significant cost overruns this year. They were being built by General Dynamics Corp <GD.N> and Lockheed Martin Corp <LMT.N>.

Bush also would request $45.6bn for aircraft, including Boeing Co's <BA.N> F/A 18 Hornet, Lockheed's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and unmanned aerial vehicles, among others.

The budget request included another $10.5bn for the continued development of a missile shield to defend against ballistic missiles from countries such as North Korea and Iran that could be tipped with chemical, germ or nuclear warheads.

- Reuters