Trump Proposes 10% Bump for the Pentagon — Then Four Flat Years

The Trump administration is proposing $3.6 trillion in Pentagon spending over the next five years, a budget that defense officials said positions the military to better compete with China and Russia.

But despite the sharp defense spending increases proposed on Monday, the massive military buildup of warships and combat aircraft promised by President Trump on the campaign trail still hasn’t materialized.

Instead, David Norquist, the Pentagon’s CFO and comptroller, said the budget proposal starts digging the military out a $406 billion hole — “in lost readiness, maintenance and modernization” — created by federal budget caps in recent years. If the Pentagon’s budget had grown at the rate of inflation since fiscal 2011, it would be on par to what the administration is requesting in 2019, he said.

Read the full article in Defense One.