The Defense Department’s fiscal 2017 budget will be boosted by a supplemental funding bill, but at least some of the cash to begin “rebuilding” the military will be shuffled from programs the Trump Administration considers lower priorities.
Defense Secretary James Mattis, on a trip visiting Asian allies, released a memo titled “Implementation Guidance for Budget Directives in the National Security Presidential Memorandum on Rebuilding the U.S. Armed Forces,” on Jan. 31.
It sets down Mattis’ “initial guidance” for Defense Department funding priorities for a fiscal 2017 supplemental budget, the fiscal 2018 president’s budget request and the five year defense plan that runs from 2019 to 2023.
The Defense Department will approach the task of rebuilding the military in three phases, according to the document. Phase one will focus on improving warfighting readiness. The program will then move on to achieving “program balance by addressing pressing shortfalls.” In the third and final phase, Mattis plans to “build a larger, more capable and more lethal joint force.”
“Phases one and two are intermediate objectives, but we should be working towards the ultimate phase three goal throughout the process,” Mattis wrote.
Mattis and the Trump administration are crafting a supplemental budget of unknown size to immediately reinforce the current fiscal year’ spending plan. They plan to deliver the budget amendment to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) by March 1. While the supplemental will represent a net increase to the current budget, the amendment also will pull funding “where appropriate” from programs the administration consider lower priority.
No programs are named that might be targeted for cuts, but with a focus on near-term readiness, development programs for future weapons and investments in innovation are at risk.
The funding will go toward near-term readiness needs, including a possible increase in force structure, and new requirements associated with a planned escalation in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), according to the memo.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work is deputized to review the process and advise Mattis on crafting the amendment.
In Phase 2, the Defense Department will deliver a fiscal 2018 budget request focusing on “balancing the program, addressing pressing programmatic shortfalls, while continuing to rebuild readiness.”
“Examples include, but are not limited to, buying more critical munitions, funding facilities sustainment at a higher rate, building programs for promising advanced capability demonstrations, investing in critical enablers and growing force structure at the maximum responsible rate,” the memo says.
Work will lead the review and is directed to report to Mattis as the plan is developed. The Defense Department fiscal 2018 president’s budget request is due to OMB by May 1, the memo says.
Parallel to those efforts will be the development of a new National Defense Strategy (NDS), Mattis said. The NDS will include a new force sizing construct and contain a plan to boost lethality against high-end adversaries and “against a broad spectrum of threats.”
“The FY 2019-2023 Defense Program will follow, containing ramps that grow the force quickly but responsibly and critical investments in advanced capabilities,” Mattis writes.
The defense program will “contain an ambitious reform agenda calling for “horizontal integration across DoD components to improve efficiency and take advantage of economies of scale,” he says.