FY 2018 Defense Budget Request Briefing Book

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The Fiscal Year 2018 Budget in Context

Introduction

President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget requests $574.5 billion for the Defense Department’s annual “base” discretionary budget, which is $58.4 billion higher than FY 17 levels, and $50.6 billion above last year’s request from President Obama. This amount does not include certain other security spending, including funding for nuclear weapons-related work in the Department of Energy. Nor does it include an additional request of $64.6 billion for the Pentagon’s portion of the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account – also referred to as “war funding.” Including all of these accounts, the total national defense discretionary spending request is $667.6 billion (see Table 1). As an uncapped account, the OCO fund is often used to push military spending above the maximum levels allowed by law. On its own, the requested OCO level would represent the fourth largest United States federal agency by budget.

Overseas Contingency Operations

The $64.6 billion request for OCO includes:

$45.9 billion for military operations in Afghanistan and training Afghan security forces (Operation Freedom’s Sentinel)
$13.0 billion for operations in Iraq and Syria (Operation Inherent Resolve) and anti-terrorism funding and operations against the Islamic State
$4.8 billion for the European Reassurance Initiative (ERI)
$0.9 billion for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the Counterterrorism Partnership Fund

In addition to the $64.6 billion OCO funding requested for the Pentagon, the Administration is also proposing $12.0 billion for OCO in the State Department/USAID FY 2018 request, a reduction of $7.1 billion compared to FY 2017. The State Department/USAID requested base budget is $25.6 billion, a reduction of $10.1 billion compared to FY 2017. In total, the amount requested for the Department of State and USAID is $37.6 billion, a reduction of approximately $17 billion compared to FY 2017.

Nuclear Modernization and Non-Proliferation

The request increases funding for nuclear weapons refurbishment plans, which aim to overhaul and maintain the entire nuclear arsenal at a cost of up to $1 trillion over 30 years. This plan includes funding for a new long-range bomber, a new nuclear-capable cruise missile, a new ballistic missile submarine program, an updated land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), and their associated warheads. Actualizing these plans will likely result in decreased funding for conventional military capabilities.

The budget also proposes a $90 million cut to the Defense Nuclear Non-Proliferation account compared to the amount enacted last year. These cuts include a $30 million reduction of the Global Material Security program, which works to reduce and protect vulnerable nuclear and radiological material located around the globe, and a further $24 million cut for non-proliferation research and development.

The President’s Request

Table 1: Discretionary Defense Request for Fiscal Year 2018

(in billions of current dollars)

FY 2017 Enacted:	FY 2018 Funding Request:	Allocated to:
516.1	574.5	Department of Defense Base Budget (051)
82.4	64.6	Overseas Contingency Operations (War Funding)
19.7	20.6	Defense Related Activities at DOE (053)
8.2	7.9	Other Defense Related Funding (054)
626.4	667.6	Total National Defense Spending Request (050)

Time Period	FY Enacted:	National Defense Spending: (in billions of 2009 dollars*)
World War II	1945	994
Korean War Peak Spending	1953	532
Vietnam War Peak Spending	1968	524
Peak 1980’s Buildup Spending	1988	533
Proposed Current Spending	2018	564

*Provided by the Office of Management and Budget