DEFENSE COMMUNITIES 360

Over the 10-year period starting in FY 2012, the Defense Department’s long-term budget would yield $488 billion in savings, representing an 8.5 percent overall reduction in spending, according to a draft version of the department’s five-year budget obtained by Bloomberg News.

The Pentagon previously has indicated that it would need to find $450 billion in savings to comply with the first round of cuts called for in August’s deal to raise the nation’s debt limit. Defense spending would drop by 1 percent in fiscal 2013, before growing by about 2 percent annually over the following four years, according to the Nov. 29 OMB passback budget to DOD.

Spending cuts through FY 2017 would be allocated as follows:

• FY 2012 — $27.5 billion
• FY 2013 — $46.8 billion
• FY 2014 — $53.3 billion
• FY 2015 — $52.7 billion
• FY 2016 — $54.6 billion
• FY 2017 — $53.5 billion

As expected, the budget does not address the $500 billion in automatic spending cuts triggered by the supercommittee’s failure to agree on a deficit reduction plan. To comply with those, the budget would need to add $55 billion in cuts each year from FY 2013 through FY 2021.

The topline DOD budget numbers, along with the percent change from the previous year’s request, in the five-year plan would be as follows:

• FY 2013 — $523.8 billion (- 1.0 percent)
• FY 2014 — $533.0 billion (+ 1.8)
• FY 2015 — $545.5 billion (+2.3)
• FY 2016 — $555.9 billion (+1.9)
• FY 2017 — $567.9 billion (+2.2)

Congressional appropriators this week reached a deal providing the department $518 billion for FY 2012. The White House had requested $540 billion for the year.