A holiday favorite meal is the Turducken, which is turkey, stuffed with duck, which is stuffed with chicken. Some decry this as an abomination but what the heck. It tastes good and is filling. The recently released 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is a Turducken, a 4400-page defense policy bill, accompanied by 748 pages of explanation that is stuffed with waterworks, authorizations for other departments and agencies, and an entire division cleverly named “Non-Department of Defense Matters.”
While skipping floor debate, as the Senate bill did, and going straight into conference with the House is not how regular order is supposed to work, this bill gets some important work done. The following observations relate primarily to the main meal, the actual defense part of the authorization bill, and particularly those macro-level procurement and readiness, military competitiveness, and industrial base topics that should continue to be a focus of attention next year.
The total NDAA as shown in Table 1 is $846.9 billion, with the Pentagon being allocated $816.6 billion, which is 5.7 percent higher than requested by the president, or just short of 10 percent over last year’s level. This 10 percent growth is higher than the current ~7 percent inflation rate, providing the Pentagon with real budget growth.
Focusing in on the Pentagon’s budget, Table 2 provides a breakout of the $816.6 billion by main appropriation title with columns for percentage change from the budget request, inflation, and real program growth.
The Military Construction program appears to be the clear winner with growth of 60 percent over the PB, split almost evenly between inflation and additional projects, while military personnel accounts were actually cut from the request, mostly due to the failure of the Army to recruit, dropping its end strength to 452,000 from the planned 473,000.
From a dollar perspective, the procurement programs are the big story, as the authorization begins to fix the deficit in these accounts by adding close to $19 billion ($15 billion without the inflation adjustment) to the budget request. These programs are key to putting actual capability into the hands of the warfighting and to rebuilding a healthy industrial base and supply chain. Specific increased authorizations include shipbuilding ($4.7 billion), aircraft ($6 billion), missiles and ammunition ($2.5 billion), and vehicles ($1.6 billion).
Of particular note, the authorization includes provisions to better understand and support the industrial base. In addition to an entire subtitle of the bill dedicated to industrial base matters, there are provisions to provide multi-year procurement authority for Arleigh Burke class destroyers, assess military rotary wing aircraft production, expand cooperative research and development to the National Technology Industrial Base and European Union, and other advanced manufacturing capabilities.
The bill emphasizes munitions production in recognition that increased acquisition flexibilities to increase munitions stocks, particularly related to Ukraine support, and enable agreements through NATO is important for warfighting readiness and “to provide the defense industrial base with predictable production opportunities and firm contractual commitments.” The bill adds $774 million for defense industrial base expansion and production increases of select critical missiles and torpedoes.
On the maritime front, Congress demonstrates continued frustration with the numerous and often changing shipbuilding plans offered by various administrations over the past decades, by establishing a National Commission on the Future of the Navy to undertake a study on the size and force mix of the Navy. The commission is directed to provide its report just prior to the 2024 election and hopefully set the funding and structure of the Navy for the following fifteen years. Navy shipbuilding was authorized 17 percent more in funding in the NDAA than what was requested.
The Operation and Maintenance accounts are also pumped up from the request, by over $10 billion, most of which is for inflation that was not factored in by the administration but that is critical to reducing slips in readiness.
From a personnel perspective, the NDAA includes a notable provision to expand the Basic Needs Allowance, a pay supplement to keep military families at least 150 percent above the poverty line. The Secretary of Defense is also authorized to raise the allowance level to 200 percent above poverty, permission he should immediately leverage for the next year given how inflation is ravaging the buying power of junior enlisted families.
Agreement on the annual defense authorization bill, as the committee touts “for the 62nd consecutive year,” is an important accomplishment regardless of deficiencies in process, transparency, or focus.
But, the Pentagon can’t spend an authorization. Much of the critical work represented by this policy bill in supporting the force and the nation’s security will lack real outcomes if an annual appropriations bill with a similar funding level is not immediately enacted as well.
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