WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush has developed a $439.3 billion Department of Defense budget that the Pentagon says will help transform the military.
The Defense appropriations request was among the $2.77 trillion fiscal year 2007 budget that Bush sent to Congress on Monday. The military's share of the total is about 15.8 percent. The next fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in a release, said the budget focuses on four areas: "prevailing in irregular warfare operations, defending the homeland against advanced threats, maintaining America's military superiority, and supporting service members and their families."
Along that line, the budget sees a 2.2-percent increase in military base pay and a $39 billion "investment" in healthcare for service personnel and their families.
The Pentagon asked for $10.4 billion to enhance missile defense capabilities and $4 billion toward development of space-based early warning systems and $1.7 billion for countermeasures to biological and other weapons "and to track and locate nuclear weapons and make them safe," the department release stated.
