Pentagon to cut rearmament costs by $10B in fiscal year 2025

The Biden administration struck a deal with congressional leaders last year to limit defense spending, Report informs referring to Politico.

The Defense Department plans to cut F-35 fighter jets, an attack submarine, Army helicopters and drones and Air Force overhead as it seeks to stay under the spending caps.

The adjustments come as the Pentagon plans to submit a budget request next month that funds the department at just under $850 billion in fiscal 2025, according to two US officials and a congressional aide who, like others quoted for this story, were granted anonymity to discuss the military’s blueprint. That total is DOD’s portion of the federal spending levels laid out in the debt limit agreement President Joe Biden signed into law last summer, which caps overall national defense spending at $895 billion for the coming fiscal year.

Compared with DOD’s projected levels for fiscal 2025 outlined in its last budget submission, the $850 billion total amounts to a $10 billion cut, or more than 1 percent of the department’s budget.

One percent may sound small in the context of an almost trillion-dollar annual budget. But officials note that because pay raises for troops and other personnel bills are set in stone, the bulk of the cuts will need to come from weapons modernization programs.

Each of the military services is planning cuts to major weapons programs in order to comply with the caps. The Navy, for example, has been discussing plans to push back funding for its next nuclear-powered submarine, according to a congressional staffer and an industry official.