The Pentagon will request that Congress approve a budget for combat operations of about $79.5 billion, the least since 2005, as U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan, according to administration officials/.../
[T]he request seems too high based on the average cost per soldier in Afghanistan, according to Todd Harrison, a defense analyst.
The Pentagon “will need to fully explain why war funding is much higher than anticipated, given the pace of the drawdown in Afghanistan,” Harrison, of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, said in an e-mail.
“Costs should be declining much faster than this if troop levels are indeed coming down as the administration has previously indicated,” he said.