After a Long Slide, U.S. Weapons Spending Set to Rise
Since peaking in the second term of Ronald Reagan's presidency, spending on weapons by the Pentagon has been on a steady decline. In real terms, adjusted for inflation, spending on production of planes, ships, tanks and ammunition has fallen 70 percent since 1985.</br></br>This year, though, the Clinton administration is trying to reverse that slide, asking Congress in the president's recently released budget for the first real increase in defense procurement in 13 years. As the chart at the right shows, this reversal comes as the overall defense budget -- which includes spending for operations, maintenance and personnel in addition to weaponry -- is barely rising. When adjusted for inflation, it actually shows a 1 percent decline.</br></br>"It's certainly fair to say the deep cuts in procurement over the past 10 years are over," said Steven M. Kosiak, budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington.</br></br>President Clinton's budget seeks $48.7 billion for new weaponry in fiscal 1999, up nearly 9 percent from $44.8 billion in the current year's budget. By 2000, the plan calls for $54.1 billion in procurement spending, and the number rises to $63.5 billion by 2003.</br></br>The spending shift can be attributed to the need to modernize many of the military's older weapons as well as the administration's desire to begin production of some 21st-century programs.