Long-Term Implications of Current Defense Plans:
Summary Update for Fiscal Year 2008
December 2007
Unless otherwise indicated, all years referred to in this paper are fiscal years, and all dollar amounts are expressed in 2008 dollars of total obligational authority.
The methodology used for this update is based on that used by the Congressional Budget Office for its January 2003 study The Long-Term Implications of Current Defense Plans. Readers may refer to that study for a more detailed description of the analysis.
The projections in this paper deal with resources for the Department of Defense (subfunction 051 of the federal budget) rather than for all national defense activities (function 050).
The cover photographs were provided courtesy of the following service branches: U.S. Army (photograph of soldiers searching a brick factory taken by Sgt. Timothy Kingston); U.S. Navy (photograph of the USS Mount Whitney taken by Paul Farley); U.S. Navy (photograph of a SH-60F Seahawk helicopter taken by Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick M. Bonafede); U.S. Marine Corps (photograph of recruits from Company L taken by Lance Cpl. Charlie Chavez); and U.S. Air Force (photograph of an F-15 Eagle aircraft taken by Senior Airman John Hughel Jr.).
Preface
W hat level of budgetary resources might be needed in the long term to carry out the Administration’s current plans for defense? This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) paper—prepared at the request of the Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee—addresses that question. The paper updates the resource projections contained in CBO’s October 2006 paper Long-Term Implications of Current Defense Plans: Summary Update for Fiscal Year 2007, reflecting changes that the Administration made to its defense plans in preparing the President’s budget request for fiscal year 2008. CBO will also publish supplementary data on its Web site that provide more details about specific programs. In keeping with CBO’s mandate to provide impartial analysis, the paper and supplementary materials make no recommendations.
Adam Talaber of CBO’s National Security Division coordinated the preparation of this paper under the supervision of J. Michael Gilmore and Matthew S. Goldberg. David Arthur, Michael Bennett, Kevin Eveker, Daniel Frisk, Eric J. Labs, Victoria Liu, Frances Lussier, and Allison Percy of the National Security Division contributed to the analysis. Raymond Hall, David Newman, and Jason Wheelock of CBO’s Defense, International Affairs, and Veterans’ Affairs Cost Estimates Unit also contributed to the report, under the supervision of Sarah Jennings.
Christine Bogusz edited the paper. Cindy Cleveland produced drafts of the manuscript, and Maureen Costantino designed the cover and prepared the report for publication. Lenny Skutnik printed the initial copies, Linda Schimmel handled the print distribution, and Simone Thomas prepared the electronic version for CBO’s Web site.
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