{"id":39484,"date":"2017-08-10T21:48:12","date_gmt":"2017-08-10T21:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/08\/10\/trump-pledges-billions-increase-in-missile-defense-spending\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:54:20","slug":"trump-pledges-billions-increase-in-missile-defense-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2017\/08\/10\/trump-pledges-billions-increase-in-missile-defense-spending\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump pledges ‘billions’ increase in missile defense spending"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to increase defense spending by \u201cbillions of dollars,\u201d while hinting that a plan to increase spending on missile defense may come as soon as next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to reporters Thursday while in New Jersey, Trump said: \u201cWe are going to be increasing our budget by many billions of dollars because of North Korea, and other reasons having to do with the anti-missile. We are going to be increasing our budget by many billions of dollars,\u201d adding that \u201cwe\u2019ll probably be able to report that over the next week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are going to be increasing the anti-missiles by a substantial amount of billions of dollars,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just what that means is unclear, although it is possible the White House will submit a proposal for consideration to Congress for the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the House has already completed its version of the NDAA, the Senate intends to take it up come September, with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., having pledged a number of new amendments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, any increase in the defense budget may meet a challenge on Capitol Hill, which already must overcome the budget caps enforced by the Budget Control Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the House and Senate defense committees have already laid out plans requesting more money than the White House did for defense spending. Each of the chambers plussed up the money for missile defense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When talking about missile defense, Trump cited that \u201cwe reduced it by 5 percent, but I\u2019ve decided I don\u2019t want that,\u201d which may be a reference to a roughly 4 percent decrease in funding for the Missile Defense Agency from FY17 levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any increase in missile defense spending would come before the conclusion of the Pentagon\u2019s Ballistic Missile Defense review<\/a>, which is currently ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\t