U.S. President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2019 budget is requesting $686.1 billion in military funding, with a focus on great power competition with Russia and China, the Pentagon announced Monday morning.
The request includes $617 billion in base budget funding and $69 billion in cap-exempt wartime funds, part of the administration’s expected $716 billion national security request (which includes Department of Energy nuclear programs).
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters Sunday the new two-year budget agreement would allow the military to be reshaped “back to a position of primacy.”The administration’s new national security strategy is prioritizing strategic competition with near-peer adversaries over counterterrorism. With the respite from budget instability, the Pentagon is rebuilding “to address the changing forms of warfare and to bring the current capabilities up,” Mattis said.