The Republican leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees have sent the Pentagon detailed plans for how they think it should spend fiscal 2025 funding, following the passage of a six-month stopgap spending bill that largely freezes funding at prior-year levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 181-page document, obtained by Defense News, includes the standard funding tables attached to lawmakers\u2019 annual defense spending legislation, which call for cuts to major service-led efforts like the Air Force\u2019s drone wingmen program, Army missile procurement and the Space Force\u2019s missile warning and tracking satellite architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the FY25 appropriations process has not been standard. The full-year continuing resolution passed by Congress may lower defense spending, but it also grants the Defense Department far more authority to decide how to spend its budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because Congress failed to pass a full FY25 appropriations bill, the plans now sent to the Pentagon are not legally binding, instead serving merely as spending recommendations, according to Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCongress ceded a significant degree of authority to the executive branch in the FY25 defense budget, and they can\u2019t get that back by issuing a letter that basically says, \u2018This is what we intended,\u2019\u201d Harrison told Defense News. \u201cGood luck getting DoD to adhere to this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congressional appropriators recommend a $1.2 billion cut from the Army\u2019s FY25 request for operations and maintenance FY25, but add an additional $501 million to the service\u2019s personnel account to cover pay raises for junior enlisted service members, according to the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additional funding \u2014 to the tune of $265 million \u2014 would bolster Army procurement. Another $248.7 million would be added to RDT&E accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While missiles have flowed from the U.S. to Ukraine and the Army has led the way in replacing and replenishing those munitions, lawmakers are recommending a cut of $247 million in missile procurement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Army\u2019s future missile defense radar \u2014 the Lower-Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS, is recommended for a $129 million cut. The most capable variant of the Army\u2019s Patriot missile would also be cut by $58 million due to a delivery backlog. The delayed Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon program would be cut by $75 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet Congress is recommending a $100 million increase for the legacy Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, beyond just the $3.3 million the Army asked for in its FY25 budget as it works to phase the missile out and field the longer-range Precision Strike Missile. Congress proposes a $25 million cut for PrSM procurement and another $10 million for the Army\u2019s pursuit of a second variant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Certain vehicles buys would also take a hit if the Army took the congressional recommendations. Lawmakers recommend slashing Armored Multipurpose Vehicle procurement by $134 million. The document contains an increase for the Paladin Integrated Management System by $158 million at a time when the service is looking at exactly how it might modernize its howitzer fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congress also suggests a major funding boost of $248 million for a modular artillery production facility and another $41 million for Army ammunition plant modernization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Army aviation procurement would be increased as well, to include $240 million for National Guard-bound Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft systems and another $60 million for National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawmakers recommend an injection of cash into Humvee modernization for both the active ($90 million) and reserve forces ($50 million) as well as additional $120 million for the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, or FMTV. Congressional appropriators would also add $167 more in funding for the Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles, or FHTV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In RDT&E funding, lawmakers cut more than $140 million deemed to be associated with climate change initiatives, including $29.5 million from the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle program and $7.4 million from a \u201csoldier lethality technology\u201d line. They also recommended cuts to all hybrid electric vehicle prototyping efforts in the force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawmakers proposed additional funding in technology development areas affiliated with lethality enhancements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The document recommends a nearly $3.2 billion spending reduction from the Air Force\u2019s original 2025 budget request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That includes cuts of $2.3 billion from research and development funding, $1.4 billion from operations and maintenance. $130 million from personnel, and nearly $115 million from missile procurement. Aircraft procurement would receive almost $64 million more than originally requested, and \u201cother\u201d procurement programs would see a plus-up of about $679 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawmakers proposed a $325 million cut to the Next Generation Air Dominance program, which they didn\u2019t justify but simply called a \u201cclassified adjustment.\u201d This would bring funding for NGAD \u2014 the Air Force\u2019s effort to build a sixth-generation crewed fighter that would fly alongside autonomous drone wingmen and other systems \u2014 down to $2.4 billion in FY25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The document also breaks the high-priority drone wingman program known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft into its own line item, but also proposes trimming more than $70 million. CCAs would have nearly $487 million in funding this year if the document\u2019s funding levels were enacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Travis Sharp, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments who studies the defense budget, noted that CCA is one of the programs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has indicated as a priority for funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis seems to be a case where mostly everyone agrees that CCA is a promising capability, but they don\u2019t agree with what [that] means in spending terms,\u201d Sharp told Defense News in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Funding for the Air Force\u2019s advanced engine development programs would get another $100 million. This would be apart from the program to build cutting-edge adaptive engines for NGAD \u2014 known as next-generation adaptive propulsion, or NGAP \u2014 which would retain the original 2025 budget request\u2019s proposed funding of $562 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The E-7 airborne battle management program would get an overall bump up of $189 million over the 2025 budget request. This is the Air Force\u2019s program to acquire a fleet of up to 26 of the Boeing-made aircraft, sometimes referred to as the Wedgetail, to replace the aging E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system, or AWACS, planes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawmakers want to strike $50 million in funding proposed in the 2025 budget proposal \u2014 called an \u201cunjustified request\u201d \u2014 for prototyping the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM. This would leave HACM with nearly $467 million in funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawmakers would also provide the services money to buy six more F-35 Joint Strike Fighters than originally requested. The Air Force would get another $196 million to buy two more F-35As, and the Navy would receive another $524 million to buy four more carrier-based F-35Cs<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The F-35 program would also get a $10 million bump to improve its power thermal management system. The F-35\u2032s Continuous Capability Development and Delivery, or C2D2, approach to developing, testing and delivering incremental improvements to the fighter will receive more than $1.1 billion in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the document recommends providing another $200 million for the HH-60W Jolly Green II combat rescue helicopter program to buy two more aircraft than requested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Space Force\u2019s fiscal 2025 funding would drop $700 million under this proposal \u2014 a seemingly small decrease presented as the service pushes for its nearly $30 billion budget to triple amid growing threats in orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reductions include $222 million from the service\u2019s operations and maintenance request, $147 million from research and development and an increase of about $1.4 million to its personnel account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the Trump administration crafts a plan to develop a homeland missile defense shield composed of advanced space sensors \u2014 a project known as \u201cGolden Dome\u201d \u2014 lawmakers are proposing cuts to the space-based missile warning and tracking systems that would likely make up the foundation of that system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The proposal includes a $283 million reduction to that layered architecture, including $33 million from the Space Development Agency\u2019s low-Earth orbit satellite constellation. Another $180 million could come from the spacecraft the service is developing to monitor missile threats from geostationary orbit and $170 million from its medium Earth orbit layer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawmakers also recommend cutting $246 million from the Space Force\u2019s classified procurement account and adding $351 million to its classified development account. While details on those funding lines are largely veiled, a large portion is used to develop counter space weapons and defensive systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The document lays out some potential additions for the Space Force, including $30 million for a Resilient Global Positioning System program that\u2019s being designed to augment the current GPS fleet. The proposal would also create a new funding line for commercial services, appropriating $40 million in FY25. Lawmakers also suggest an $80 million add to fund additional satellite payload processing capabilities at the Space Force\u2019s overtaxed launch ranges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cGood luck getting DoD to adhere to this,” one analyst said of lawmakers’ attempts to influence defense spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":119544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"9":{"categories":["battlefield-tech","home"],"primary_category":"battlefield-tech"}}},"categories":[37,8,160,29,88,33,36,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3468,3412,3330,3458],"class_list":["post-69706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-digital-show-dailies","category-global-force-symposium","category-home","category-newsletters","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"4NLN7INRF5G33IW3CCW3B4K24U","arc_canonical_url":"\/pentagon\/2025\/03\/20\/republicans-offer-defense-spending-tips-after-punting-on-a-budget\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n