thedrifter
02-06-06, 12:44 PM
February 06, 2006
Corps slated to get more Marines
By Christopher P. Cavas
Special to the Times
The Marine Corps is budgeted for 175,000 troops in fiscal year 2007, but Congress already has approved growing that figure to 179,000.
The services are allowed to exceed their personnel authorization by 2 percent, and the Marines currently can expand to about 181,000. The service expects to pay for the troop increases through emergency supplemental funding.
The budget also will ask for several new joint capabilities for the Marines and Navy, including the new Marine Corps Special Operations Command, a riverine capability and Expeditionary Security Force for the Navy, and a National Maritime Intelligence Integration Center, according to a Navy budget briefing document obtained by Defense News. The new capabilities are to be funded under operation and maintenance accounts.
The Navy will ask for $127.3 billion in fiscal 2007, down $1.7 billion from the figure forecast a year ago.
The request includes seven ships, the same FY07 number planned last year. But the list has changed slightly.
As expected, two $3.3 billion DD(X) destroyers will be requested in 2007, rather than one each in 2007 and 2008. To compensate, the ninth LPD 17 San Antonio-class amphibious ship has been pushed back from 2007 to 2008.
In addition to the two destroyers, the Navy also will ask for one SSN 774 Virginia-class submarine; two Littoral Combat Ships (LCS); one LHA 6 amphibious assault ship and one T-AKE dry-cargo ammunition ship.
The Navy also will again ask to decommission the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy in 2007 and reduce the carrier fleet by one to 11 ships, a move backed up by the Pentagon in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Congress denied the service’s request last year to take the ship out of service for cost reasons, but Navy officials appear confident the move will be approved.
The QDR also recommended an increase in the Navy’s procurement of Littoral Combat Ships, and the future year plan now adds one LCS each year from 2009 through 2011, for six ships per year.
The budget document repeats last year’s assertion that the size of the fleet has bottomed out and will begin to rise, from the 281 ships in service today to 285 next year. Fourteen new ships are forecast to enter the fleet in 2007, while a dozen will be decommissioned.
The Navy will accelerate the effort to shrink the number of uniformed personnel, sloughing off an additional 4,600 officers and sailors by the end of 2007. Officials, who were previously aiming for a force of 345,300, now want it to number just 340,700 — saving $972 million in 2007 alone.
Corps slated to get more Marines
By Christopher P. Cavas
Special to the Times
The Marine Corps is budgeted for 175,000 troops in fiscal year 2007, but Congress already has approved growing that figure to 179,000.
The services are allowed to exceed their personnel authorization by 2 percent, and the Marines currently can expand to about 181,000. The service expects to pay for the troop increases through emergency supplemental funding.
The budget also will ask for several new joint capabilities for the Marines and Navy, including the new Marine Corps Special Operations Command, a riverine capability and Expeditionary Security Force for the Navy, and a National Maritime Intelligence Integration Center, according to a Navy budget briefing document obtained by Defense News. The new capabilities are to be funded under operation and maintenance accounts.
The Navy will ask for $127.3 billion in fiscal 2007, down $1.7 billion from the figure forecast a year ago.
The request includes seven ships, the same FY07 number planned last year. But the list has changed slightly.
As expected, two $3.3 billion DD(X) destroyers will be requested in 2007, rather than one each in 2007 and 2008. To compensate, the ninth LPD 17 San Antonio-class amphibious ship has been pushed back from 2007 to 2008.
In addition to the two destroyers, the Navy also will ask for one SSN 774 Virginia-class submarine; two Littoral Combat Ships (LCS); one LHA 6 amphibious assault ship and one T-AKE dry-cargo ammunition ship.
The Navy also will again ask to decommission the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy in 2007 and reduce the carrier fleet by one to 11 ships, a move backed up by the Pentagon in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). Congress denied the service’s request last year to take the ship out of service for cost reasons, but Navy officials appear confident the move will be approved.
The QDR also recommended an increase in the Navy’s procurement of Littoral Combat Ships, and the future year plan now adds one LCS each year from 2009 through 2011, for six ships per year.
The budget document repeats last year’s assertion that the size of the fleet has bottomed out and will begin to rise, from the 281 ships in service today to 285 next year. Fourteen new ships are forecast to enter the fleet in 2007, while a dozen will be decommissioned.
The Navy will accelerate the effort to shrink the number of uniformed personnel, sloughing off an additional 4,600 officers and sailors by the end of 2007. Officials, who were previously aiming for a force of 345,300, now want it to number just 340,700 — saving $972 million in 2007 alone.