By Franz-Stefan Gady
The Department of Defense wants more money to fight terrorism and reassure its European allies.
On Monday, February 2, the Department of Defense will propose a $585 billion budget for the fiscal year 2016, according to a source speaking with Defense News and draft budget documents obtained by Politico. The proposal consists of $534 billion in the base budget and $51 billion in overseas contingency operations (OCO) – the war budget for Afghanistan and other counter-terrorism operations. The budget will, as in the years before, try to save money by cutting benefits (healthcare, housing, commissaries etc.).
However, Pentagon press spokesperson, Commander Bill Urban, cautioned that the draft budget can still “change an awful lot.” If approved, the FY 2016 budget will top the FY 2015 budget of $554 billion by $31 billion. This includes a $38 billion increase from the current year’s defense budget, since the war funding budget (OCO) will go down from $64 billion in the fiscal 2015 request to $51 billion for 2016. In detail, this means $42 billion for the war in Afghanistan, $5.3 billion for the fight against the terror group ISIS in Iraq and Syria, $2.1 billion for the counter-terrorism partnership fund, and $789 million for the European Reassurance Initiative – on top of the 1$ billion requested for the initiative by the Obama White House in June 2014.
Read the full story at The Diplomat