President Obama’s last budget, to be released February 9th, is his last chance to put his administration’s stamp on the nation’s defense spending.
While the Obama administration won’t be implementing this final budget, they will be setting the stage for the next Administration. Key areas to watch include: the likely political fight about overall defense spending; finding the $22 billion in cuts between the FY2017 spending called for in last year’s budget plan and this year’s budget submission; the potential for defense reforms in acquisition, organization, and compensation; balancing investments in force structure and modernization; investment bets on the future; the early wedges of the bow wave in acquisition spending; and Overseas Contingency Operations adjustments in response to ISIS and Russian aggression in Europe.
Katherine Blakeley and the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments present an analytic preview of the FY2017 defense budget.