2 Percent Requirement

The Pentagon requires at least 2 percent annual growth in order to sustain the current portfolio of weapons programs in the fiscal year 2010 budget request, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee today.

“For us to hold steady the program that we have in front of you for FY-10, for us to hold that steady in the outyears, we will need at least 2 percent real growth in the defense budget,” he said.

The total FY-10 defense spending request, both the Pentagon's base budget and funds to support wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, amount to 4.6 percent of the total gross national produce, Robert Hale, Defense Department comptroller, told the committee.