Long-Term Implications of Current Defense Plans: Summary Update for Fiscal Year 2007

Abstract : Decisions about national defense that are made today whether they involve weapon systems, military compensation, or numbers of personnel can have long-lasting effects on the composition of U.S. armed forces and the budgetary resources needed to support them. In the past four years, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has published a series of reports projecting the resources that might be needed over the long term to carry out the plans in the Administration's then-current Future Years Defense Program (FYDP). Prepared by the Department of Defense (DoD), the FYDP is submitted to the Congress each fiscal year as part of the President's budget request. This paper, like CBO's previous reports, provides longterm projections (in this case, through 2024) of the potential costs of DoD's current plans that is, those plans contained in the 2007 FYDP, which covers fiscal years 2007 through 2011. The 2007 FYDP reflects changes to the department's programs and priorities since February 2005, including changes to the defense program that the Administration now plans as a result of the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). The 2007 FYDP and CBO's projections both exclude potential future supplemental appropriations.