Fifth, the US military expanded the construction of military bases in Africa and increased its military presence there. The US invested ＄1.4 billion to expand the building of Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti and planned to build it into a key base for deployed SOF, air forces, and UAVs and gradually radiate to regional countries like Somalia, Seychelles, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Niger, Cameroon, Mali, and Senegal in order to form a military network together with the 14 UAV bases there to cover all the hot spots in Africa and increase the US military presence in Africa.
Sixth, the US military strengthened the building of new types of combat forces to race to control the commanding heights in future wars. Any future war will be a cyber war conducted by networked military forces in the information age. In such a war, new operational patterns like cyberspace operations, space operations, and unmanned operations will become the critical links to victory in the war. Consequently, despite its tight defense budget, the US military has still spared no effort to strengthen the building of new types of combat forces like cyberspace operation forces, space operation forces, and unmanned operation forces, exerted itself to race to control the commanding heights in future wars, and strived to seize the initiative in future wars.
All these characteristics indicate that given the requirements by the US Rebalancing Strategy, in 2015 the DoD continued its adjustment of the size and structure of the US military, strengthened the building of new-type operational forces, and optimized the US military dispositions in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe. In doing so, the DoD aimed to take due precautions and make prior preparations to hedge and contain China’s rise, deal with the tense
Russia-Ukraine situation, and fight and win future wars, thus providing powerful support to the maintenance of the US hegemony and military leadership.
Chapter III National Defense Budget and Weapons and Equipment R＆D
On January 7, 2015, new version of DoDI 5000.02 Operation of the Defense Acquisition System was officially released. Procedures of defense procurement and acquisition are increased from 1 to 6. The document also requires to improve efficiency and mitigate risks by integrating both weapons and information systems, with the aim of making full use of defense budget and enhancing the modernization of the US forces’ weapons and equipment.
A. National Defense Budget
On February 2, 2015, the Obama administration officially submitted the Fiscal Year 2016 Defense Budget Proposal （from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016）. The US national defense budget for FY2016 is ＄585 billion, ＄4.4 billion more than that of FY2015 and higher than the total sum of the following 8 countries’ defense budgets. It includes record-breaking ＄534.3 billion for base budget, 7.8% more than that of FY2015; ＄50.9 billion for overseas contingency operations, 13% less than that of last year.
The allocation of FY2015 defense budget in terms of function is as follows：＄137.6 billion （25.6%） will go to funding for military personnel, ＄209.8 billion （39.3%） for war preparedness, ＄107.7 billion （20.2%） for procurement and acquisition, ＄69.8 billion （13.1%） for R＆D, ＄10.2 billion （1.9%） for miscellaneous functions （such as military construction）. The allocation of FY2015 defense budget in terms of services includes ＄126.5 billion for the Army, ＄161 billion for the Navy （the Marine Corps included）, ＄152.9 billion for the Air Force, and ＄94 billion for agencies directly affiliated to the DoD and other agencies, accounting respectively for 23.7%, 30.1%, 28.6%, and 17.6% of the overall defense budget.
In terms of the component and allocation of defense budget application FY2015, the following features can be summarized. First, the national defense budget begins to increase, which proves the suspension of sequestration-level cuts in spending. Since FY2013, the US military has started to carry out sequestration-level cuts （＄480 billion cuts in defense budgets of the following 10 years）. As a result, US defense budget has decreased annually. The DoD elaborates on the possible grave effects of starting sequestration-level cuts on the full-spectrum combat capabilities in Quadrennial Defense Review 2014. It urges Congress to suspend the cuts. Defense budget of FY2016 is ＄4.4 billion more than that of FY2015, with 7.8% increase of base budget. It is the first increase during the past years, which demonstrates the DoD’s appeal to abandon sequestration-level cuts in spending has worked. Second, funding for personnel and war preparedness drops slightly, while miscellaneous funding rises slightly. Funding for personnel and war preparedness is decreased by 1.7% and 0.8% respectively. Meanwhile, funding for procurement and acquisition, R＆D and miscellaneous functions is increased by 2%, 0.3% and 0.3% respectively. Decrease of funding for military personnel and increase of funding for R＆D, turn out to be a direct result of AC’s cut, implementation of the third Offset Strategy and enhancement of military technology R＆D. Third, budgets for USN and USAF continue to be increased while budgets for USA and DoD are cut. The allocation of FY2015 defense budget in terms of services is 23.7% for the Army, 30.1% for the Navy （the Marine Corps included）, 28.6% for the Air Force, and 17.6% for agencies directly affiliated to the DoD and other agencies.
|
