Pentagon budget 2022: Army requests USD173 billion, kills seven programmes

The US Army’s fiscal year 2022 (FY 2022) budget will be slashed by USD3.6 billion over this year’s discretionary spending levels if the Pentagon gets its way. This proposed reduction will cut the service’s weapons procurement and development coffers by USD4.1 billion and slightly reduce the size of the service’s active-duty force down to 485,000 soldiers.

The Biden administration delivered its FY 2022 budget request to Congress on 28 May with a USD715 billion ask for Department of Defense. The army’s portion of the request is USD173 billion and, without factoring in inflation, is several billion dollars less than lawmakers provided the service with this year.

More specifically, the service is requesting USD154.5 billion for its base budget, USD10.4 billion for ‘direct war costs’, and USD8 billion for ‘enduring costs’. The pots include USD66.2 billion for military personnel, a USD1.2 billion increase over this year’s allocated level; USD65.5 billion for operations and maintenance which is USD700 million less than the service has for this year; USD1.7 billion for military construction, a USD300 million cut; and USD5.5 billion for ‘other’, a USD400 million increase.

When it comes to weapons’ accounts, the army is requesting USD12.8 billion for the research and development of new systems, a USD1.3 billion cut over the current spending level, and USD21.3 billion for procurement, a USD2.8 billion reduction.

For the past several weeks army officials have warned, both publicly and privately, that these looming cuts are not ideal and makes the service the bill payer for the navy.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley disputed this assertion just a day before the budget was released.