Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Arizona) has released a white paper that seeks to propose a base budget of $640 billion for the Defense Department and $60 billion in overseas contingency operations funds for fiscal year 2018, the Washington Examiner reported Monday.
David Brown and Jacqueline Klimas write McCain’s base budget proposal for DoD in the paper titled Restoring American Power would be $54 billion higher than President Barack Obama’s planned budget.
The document aims to lay out plans to facilitate a military build-up over the next five years that include a DoD base budget of $750.5 billion by FY 2022 and procurement of 59 ships.
McCain’s white paper reflects a $430 billion increase over the Obama administration’s current plans over a five-year period, according to a report by Joe Gould for Defense News.
He also proposed to cap the littoral combat ship program to 28 vessels in 2017 in an effort to start the purchase of small surface combatant ships by 2022.
Other proposals in McCain’s white paper include the procurement of additional 58 Boeing-built F/A-18 E/F Super Hornets and 16 more EA-18G Growler aircraft by the U.S. Navy, efforts to increase the U.S. Marines Corps’ service personnel to 200,000 by 2022, and the U.S. Air Force’s sustainment of the A-10 fighter fleet and acquisition of 300 light-attack fighter jets by 2022.
