CRS Issue Statement on Military Weapons and Equipment Programs

Pat Towell, Coordinator
Specialist in U.S. Defense Policy and Budget

Steven A. Hildreth
Specialist in Missile Defense

Carl Ek
Specialist in International Relations

Jonathan Medalia
Specialist in Nuclear Weapons Policy

Ronald O'Rourke
Specialist in Naval Affairs

Mari-Jana "M-J" Oboroceanu
Information Research Specialist

Jeremiah Gertler
Specialist in Military Aviation


A major responsibility of Congress is to provide U.S. military forces with weapons and equipment. Annual funding supports the development, acquisition and maintenance of a wide variety of military systems and items. 

This year, pressures on the federal budget as a result of the current financial crisis may lead to tighter constraints on defense spending and thus exacerbate the problem of balancing the cost of current military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq against the cost of modernizing the Services for the long run. This perennial challenge may be particularly salient in 2010 because, in addition to submitting its annual DOD budget request, the Administration will publish the results of the legislatively-mandated Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which is intended to be a far reaching assessment of U.S. force structure and plans. A major theme of that review may be the issue of deciding how to balance the need to equip U.S. forces to fight a conventional war against a potential near-peer competitor against the need to equip them to wage irregular warfare against unconventional adversaries, such as they currently face in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Date of Report: January 13, 2010
Number of Pages: 3
Order Number: IS40351
Price: $7.95

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