[Budget of the United States Government]
[VI. Investing in the Common Good: Program Performance in Federal Functions]
[12. National Defense]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
12. NATIONAL DEFENSE
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Table 12-1. FEDERAL RESOURCES IN SUPPORT OF NATIONAL DEFENSE
(In millions of dollars)
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Estimate
Function 050 1997 -----------------------------------------------------------
Actual 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
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Spending:
Discretionary Budget Authority.......... 266,180 268,598 271,616 276,957 284,786 288,090 298,048
Mandatory Outlays:
Existing law.......................... -1,169 -997 -1,035 -1,033 -1,020 -1,009 -978
Credit Activity:
Direct loan disbursements............... ........ 7 ........ 175 345 319 334
Guaranteed loans........................ ........ 20 176 216 1,236 1,164 1,205
Tax Expenditures:
Existing law............................ 2,080 2,095 2,120 2,140 2,160 2,180 2,200
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The Federal Government will allocate over $271 billion in 1999 to
defend the United States, its citizens, its allies, and to protect and
advance American interests around the world. National defense programs
and activities ensure that the United States maintains strong, ready,
and modern military forces to promote U.S. objectives in peacetime,
deter conflict, and if necessary, successfully defend our Nation and its
interests in wartime.
Over the past half-century, our defense program has deterred both
conventional and nuclear attack on U.S. soil, and brought a successful
end to the Cold War. Today, the United States is the sole remaining
superpower in the world, with military capabilities unsurpassed by any
nation. As the world's best trained and best equipped fighting force,
the U.S. military continues to provide the strength and leadership that
serve as the foundation upon which to promote peace, freedom, and
prosperity around the globe.
Department of Defense (DOD)
The DOD budget provides for the pay, training, operation, basing, and
support of U.S. military forces, and for the development and acquisition
of modern equipment to:
Shape the international environment by sustaining U.S.
defense forces at levels sufficient to undertake our strategy
of engagement, and conducting programs to reduce weapons of
mass destruction, prevent their proliferation, and combat
terrorism;
Respond to the full spectrum of crises by deploying forces
overseas and maintaining capabilities to mobilize forces
stationed on U.S. soil;
Prepare for an uncertain future by giving U.S. forces the
military hardware that employs the best available
technologies; and
Ensure that the U.S. military remains the world's most
prepared and capable force by sustaining force readiness
levels and reengineering business practices to improve
operations.
To achieve these objectives, DOD sustains the following capabilities.
Conventional Forces: Conventional forces include ground forces such
as infantry and tank units; air forces such as tactical aircraft; naval
forces such as aircraft carriers, destroyers, and attack submarines; and
Marine Corps expeditionary forces. The Nation needs conventional forces
to deter aggression and, when
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that fails, to defeat it. Funds to support these forces cover pay and
benefits for military personnel; the purchase, operation, and
maintenance of conventional systems such as tanks, aircraft, and ships;
the purchase of ammunition and spare parts; and training.
Mobility Forces: Mobility forces provide the airlift and sealift that
transport military personnel and materiel throughout the world. They
play a critical role in U.S. defense strategy and are a vital part of
America's response to contingencies that range from humanitarian relief
efforts to major theater wars. Airlift aircraft provide a flexible,
rapid way to deploy forces and supplies quickly to distant regions,
while sealift ships allow the deployment of large numbers of heavy
forces together with their fuel and supplies. The mobility program also
includes prepositioning equipment and supplies at sea or on land near
the location of a potential crisis, allowing U.S. forces that must
respond rapidly to crises overseas to quickly draw upon these
prepositioned items.
Strategic Nuclear Forces: Strategic nuclear forces are also important
to our military capability. They include land-based intercontinental
ballistic missiles, submarine launched ballistic missiles, and long-
range strategic bombers. Within treaty-imposed limits, the primary
mission of strategic forces is to deter nuclear attack against the
United States and its allies, and to convince potential adversaries that
they will never gain a nuclear advantage against our Nation.
Supporting Activities: Supporting activities include research and
development, communications, intelligence, training and medical
services, central supply and maintenance, and other logistics
activities. In particular, the Defense Health Program provides health
care through DOD facilities as well as through the CHAMPUS medical
insurance program and TRICARE--its companion program.
DOD Performance
DOD has identified broad objectives and key performance indicators
and quantitative measures that will determine whether it is achieving
its major goals.
Shaping the International Environment: DOD's first goal is to shape
the international environment by participating in international security
organizations, such as NATO, and improving our ability to work
cooperatively with our friends and allies. Such efforts are designed to
promote regional stability and security, and reduce the threat of war.
Their failure could lead to a major conflict affecting U.S. interests.
Evaluating DOD's performance in this area includes an assessment of:
The ability of U.S. forces to enhance and sustain security
relationships with friends and allies, enhance coalition
warfighting, promote regional stability and support U.S.
regional security objectives, deter aggression, and prevent or
reduce the threat of conflict. For example, in 1999, the
United States and Russia will conduct one Joint Theater
Ballistic Missile Defense command post exercise.
DOD's success in implementing threat reduction programs and
arms control agreements, including inspection, verification,
and monitoring programs.
DOD's achievement of the force structure objectives of the
Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR).
Responding to the Full Spectrum of Crises: DOD must be able to
respond to the full spectrum of crises, from small-scale contingencies
to two nearly simultaneous major theater wars.
In 1999, DOD and the relevant services will meet the following
performance goals:
The Air Force will maintain 20 Air Force Fighter wing
equivalents, four air defense squadrons, 89 strategic bombers,
and 550 intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The Navy will maintain 11 aircraft wings and 314 battle force
ships, including 12 aircraft carriers and 18 ballistic-missile
submarines.
The Army will maintain four active corps headquarters, 18
active and National Guard divisions, two active armored
cavalry regiments, and 15 National Guard enhanced readiness
brigades.
The Marine Corps will maintain three active and one reserve
divisions, three active
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and one reserve wings, and three active and one reserve force
service support groups.
Overseas presence, mobility, and the sustaining of a capable force
structure are all key to DOD's ability to respond effectively to crises.
DOD's effectiveness will be determined, in part, by the ability of U.S.
forces ``forward deployed'' (that is, on site around the world) and
those deploying from U.S. bases to rapidly converge at the scene of a
potential conflict to deter hostilities and protect U.S. citizens and
interests in times of crisis.
In the Pacific, DOD will deploy one Army division, one Marine
expeditionary force, two Air Force fighter wing equivalents,
one Navy carrier battle group, and one amphibious ready group
with an embarked Marine expeditionary unit.
In Europe, DOD will maintain one Army armor division and one
Army mechanized infantry division, two Air Force fighter wing
equivalents, one carrier battle group, and one amphibious
ready group with an embarked Marine expeditionary unit.
In Southwest Asia, DOD will deploy at least one Air Force
fighter wing equivalent, one carrier battle group, and one
amphibious ready group with an embarked Marine expeditionary
unit, in addition to materiel prepositioned in the region.
The amount of sealift and airlift capacity must be sufficient to meet
deployment timelines for deterring and defeating large-scale, cross-
border aggression in two distant theaters in overlapping time frames,
and to sustain U.S. forces engaged in two major theater wars.
In 1999, DOD will attain an organic strategic airlift
capability of 26.5 million ton miles a day and will attain a
surge sealift capacity of 7.8 million square feet.
Preparing Now for an Uncertain Future: U.S. forces must maintain a
qualitative superiority over potential adversaries by pursuing a focused
procurement and research and development program. Achieving this goal
depends on ensuring that:
DOD will acquire modern and capable weapon systems and will
deliver them to U.S. forces in 25 percent less time, while
ensuring that costs do not grow more than one percent a year
by the year 2000 and meeting required performance
specifications.
Remaining the World's Most Ready and Capable Force: Attaining this
goal depends on four elements: ensuring the readiness of military units;
retaining and recruiting high-quality personnel; strengthening and
enhancing quality of life programs for military members and their
families; and providing equal opportunity throughout the armed services.
DOD has identified specific milestones to measure progress in each
area, such as the amount of training that individual units accomplish,
the availability and operability of equipment, and the achievement of
recruiting and retention goals.
Several factors determine overall unit readiness, such as
training, quality and availability of equipment, and number of
personnel and, in 1999, DOD will ensure that all of its units
meet their specified readiness goals.
On average, the Army will attain 800 tank miles a year; the
Air Force will achieve 20 flying hours per crew a month; the
Marine Corps will fully execute its mission training syllabus;
and the Navy will execute 50.5 deployed and 28 non-deployed
ship steaming days per quarter.
In 1999, DOD also will:
Recruit 191,300 new members of the armed services, obtain 60
percent of recruits from the top half of those tested for
service, and achieve a 50 percent enlisted retention rate
after the first term.
Achieve all of its projected targets for its civilian work
force reductions.
Exploiting the Revolution in Military Affairs: DOD will follow the
strategy of Joint Vision 2010, developed by the Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, to transform U.S. forces for the future, and it will
exploit emerging information technologies to reshape the way it fights
and prepares for war.
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Reengineering DOD's Infrastructure: DOD must develop new, innovative
approaches to manage and reduce infrastructure costs. Following the end
of the Cold War, the United States began a major reduction of its
military forces. DOD's cuts in infrastructure costs, however, have not
kept pace. To make further cuts, DOD plans to adopt innovative
management techniques and technological practices. In addition, DOD will
submit legislation to Congress proposing two more rounds of base
closures and realignments in 2001 and 2005.
DOD has identified specific goals around which to focus the reform of
business affairs.
By 1999, DOD will:
Produce a Facility Strategic Plan to guide the acquisition,
operation, maintenance, repair, renovation, and replacement of
its physical plant.
By 2000, DOD will:
Ensure that U.S. forces can achieve visibility of 90 percent
of DOD materiel assets, while resupplying military
peacekeepers and warfighters and reducing the 1997 average
order-to-receipt time by half.
Dispose of $2.2 billion in excess National Defense Stockpile
inventories and $3 billion in unneeded Government personal
property, while reducing supply inventory by $12 billion.
Simplify purchasing and payment by using purchase card
transactions for 90 percent of all DOD micropurchases, while
reengineering the requisitioning, funding, and ordering
processes.
Create a world-class learning organization by offering 40 or
more hours a year of continuing education and training to
DOD's acquisition-related work force.
Complete the disposal of half of the surplus real property,
while privatizing 30,000 housing units.
Cut paper acquisition transactions by half from 1997 levels
through electronic commerce and electronic data interchange.
Eliminate layers of management by streamlining processes,
while cutting DOD's acquisition-related work force by 15
percent.
Department of Energy (DOE) Performance
DOE contributes to our national security mainly by reducing the
global danger from nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass
destruction. DOE is committed to maintaining confidence in the nuclear
weapons stockpile without testing, as required under the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty; to strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime; to
work with states of the former Soviet Union to improve control of
nuclear materials; to develop improved technologies to detect, identify,
and respond to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and
illicit materials trafficking; and to aggressively clean up the
environmental legacy of nuclear weapons programs.
The budget proposes $12.1 billion to meet DOE's national security
objectives, of which $6.1 billion is for ongoing national security
missions to support DOD and other agencies.
DOE will achieve the following performance goals:
Maintain and refurbish specific warheads in 1999, and certify
that standards for safety, reliability, and performance of the
nuclear weapons stockpile are met.
Develop advanced simulation, modeling, and experimentation
technologies to replace underground testing by 2004, including
installing a computer system capable of three trillion
operations per second in 1999.
Dismantle about 500 nuclear weapons.
Jointly, with Russia, test and demonstrate technologies to
dispose of surplus weapons plutonium and begin to develop a
pilot scale plutonium conversion system in Russia, design a
full-scale pit disassembly and conversion facility, and
procure mixed-oxide irradiation services in the United States.
Complete 85 percent of the development of the next generation
nuclear reactor plant for the Navy's new attack submarine.
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The remaining $6 billion of DOE's national security funding addresses
the environmental legacy of nuclear weapons activities.
DOE will meet the following performance goals:
Reduce the number of geographical sites requiring high-risk
environmental cleanup from 87 to 42 by the end of 1999.
Close one high-level waste storage tank at the Savannah River
site; and
Stabilize and safely store or dispose of radioactive and
hazardous wastes, including 37 tons of spent fuel, 134,000
cubic meters of low-level waste, about 150 canisters of high-
level waste, 0.3 tons of plutonium at the Hanford site, and
initial shipments of transuranic wastes at the Waste Isolation
Pilot Plant, which will be opened for disposal in May 1998.
Other Defense-Related Activities
Other activities that support national defense and that are
implementing performance measurement include programs involving the:
Coast Guard, which supports the defense mission through
overseas deployments for engagements with friends and allies,
port security teams, boarding and inspection teams for
enforcing U.N. sanctions, training, aids to navigation,
international icebraking, equipment maintenance, and support
of the Coast Guard Reserve;
Federal Bureau of Investigation, which conducts
counterintelligence and surveillance activities;
Maritime Administration, which helps maintain a fleet of
active, military useful, privately owned U.S. vessels that
would be available in times of national emergency;
Arlington National Cemetery, which is developing an expansion
plan for using contiguous land sites that will be vacated by
the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps; and
Selective Service System, which is modernizing its
registration process to promote military recruiting among
registrants. This spirit of volunteerism will be achieved in
partnership with the America's Promise group, private
corporations, and the armed services.
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Accurately Recognizing and Reporting Veterans Benefits
The Nation has long viewed veterans programs as a key way to attract the high-quality people needed for our
volunteer armed forces. Americans recognize veterans benefits as an appropriate part of the compensation
provided for service in the military. Veterans programs are inextricably linked with national defense; without
defense, veterans programs would not exist.
Because the Veterans Affairs Department funds and administers these benefits, however, the Federal Government
has accounted for them differently than other defense-related budget costs. They appear in the budget's Veterans
Benefits and Services function, not the National Defense function. \1\ Also, the budget does not report the full
size of these obligations. Rather than recognize the benefits and future Federal obligations that military
members earn through their service, the budget reports only the amounts paid in a single year to veterans. Thus,
neither the Defense Department (DOD) nor Congress gets a full picture of defense personnel costs when making
decisions about the size and scope of our military, making it far harder to consider which package of benefits
might best attract and retain quality military personnel. Finally, the 1993 Government Performance and Results
Act encourages policy makers to align missions and related Government programs in the budget.
The Administration, which plans to work with Congress this year to address this problem, believes that any of
the following four options would improve the current budgetary treatment of veterans programs, enabling the
Government to more accurately measure the true cost of our national defense: (1) move the veterans-related
discretionary accounts into the Defense function; (2) fund veterans entitlements on an accrual basis in DOD's
budget and fund discretionary veterans programs in the Defense function; (3) fund veterans entitlements on an
accrual basis in DOD's budget and display veterans spending in related functions (e.g., Education); or (4) fund
veterans entitlements on an accrual basis in DOD's budget and continue to reflect veterans spending in its
current function.
Table 12-2 below shows the estimated annual charges to DOD's military personnel account from pre-funding
veterans benefits.
Table 12-2. ACCRUING VA BENEFITS FOR CURRENT MILITARY PERSONNEL
(Notional Costs of Accruing and Actuarially Funding VA Benefits in DOD
Budget)
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Percentage 1999 DOD
of DOD Notional Cost
Program Basic Pay (in millions of
\2\ dollars)
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VA Compensation........................... 11.6% 3,960
Active Duty Education..................... 1.6% 546
VA Loans................................. 0.2% 68
Vocational Rehabilitation and Counseling. 0.9% 307
VA Pensions............................... 2.5% 853
VA Burial................................. 0.1% 34
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Total VA Benefits....................... 16.9% 5,768
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\1\ For a more detailed discussion of veterans programs, see Chapter 26,
``Veterans Benefits and Services.''
\2\ Basic pay for military personnel does not include benefits, special
and incentive pay or bonuses, or housing and subsistence allowances.
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