Defense Department would receive $553 billion, plus $118 billion to fund wars

The president's proposed budget requests $553 billion for the Defense Department's base spending and $118 billion to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, for a total of $671 billion.

Although the base budget would rise $22 billion above the fiscal 2010 figure expected to be available this year, the war funding would drop by $41 billion from the $159 billion expected for this year. That would put the proposed overall figure for fiscal 2012 at almost $20 billion less than overall defense spending for this year.

Increased spending next year would go toward cybersecurity, which would total $2.3 billion, and toward new efforts to protect against biological weapons.

The budget would eliminate some weapons systems, including the $13 billion Marine amphibious landing craft called the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. It also would deal with skyrocketing military health-care costs through "efficiency and management reforms" projected to save nearly $8 billion over the next five years.

An additional $12.8 billion is requested for Afghan security forces, up nearly $1 billion from the current year and even more from the amount contained in the fiscal 2011 continuing resolution.

- Walter Pincus