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Lance Cpl. Garry J. Welch
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Drones didn't do so well in the Pentagon's fiscal 2014 budget. But even though the budget operates under the cloud of congressionally-mandated spending restrictions, there are a number of weapons, planes and ships that have been spared the axe, or gotten their funding boosted.
Whatever "fundamental change" Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has vowed to the way the Pentagon purchases stuff will have to wait. The $527 billion budget -- plus another anticipated $88 billion for the Afghanistan war -- shaves more weapons systems than it cuts outright. A $1.7 billion missile-defense sensor suite called the Precision Tracking Space System is the major hardware casualty of the new budget. Lots of other stuff -- the next-generation Aegis missile, the Army's Light Utility Helicopter, ammunition for the Marines -- gets trimmed or delayed, not axed.
But then there are the winners. Several weapons systems that face much criticism avoided the axe. Other, often-overlooked hardware priorities got new infusions of cash. Still other programs received a high-profile show of support from the military services, underscoring how badly the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines want them.
None of this is to say the Pentagon budget is realistic. Congress placed hard ceilings on defense spending, and the Obama administration's defense budget exceeds them by $52 billion, before anticipating four straight years of defense spending growth, albeit to keep pace with inflation. Team Obama wants to swap the $500 billion in defense "sequestration" cuts over the next decade with only $150 billion in cuts, most of which won't take place until the end of the decade. Even so, budgets -- even fantasy ones -- are statements about priorities. Here are several weapons systems that remain prioritized.
