Gallery: 6 Weapons That Love the New Pentagon Budget
Lance Cpl. Garry J. Welch01amphibious-combat-vehicle
Drones [didn't do so well](stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/04/drone-budget/) in the Pentagon's fiscal 2014 budget. But even though the budget operates under the cloud of congressionally-mandated spending restrictions, there are a number of weapons, planes and ships that have been spared the axe, or gotten their funding boosted. Whatever "[fundamental change](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/04/hagel-dramatic-changes/)" Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has vowed to the way the Pentagon purchases stuff will have to wait. The $527 billion budget -- plus another anticipated $88 billion for the Afghanistan war -- shaves more weapons systems than it cuts outright. A $1.7 billion missile-defense sensor suite called the [Precision Tracking Space System](http://www.mda.mil/system/ptss.html) is the major hardware casualty of the new budget. Lots of other stuff -- the next-generation Aegis missile, the Army's Light Utility Helicopter, ammunition for the Marines -- gets trimmed or delayed, not axed. But then there are the winners. Several weapons systems that face much criticism avoided the axe. Other, often-overlooked hardware priorities got new infusions of cash. Still other programs received a high-profile show of support from the military services, underscoring how badly the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines want them. None of this is to say the Pentagon budget is realistic. Congress placed [hard ceilings on defense spending](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/01/defense-cash-chaos/), and the Obama administration's defense budget exceeds them by $52 billion, before anticipating four straight years of defense spending *growth*, albeit to keep pace with inflation. Team Obama wants to swap the $500 billion in defense "sequestration" cuts over the next decade with only $150 billion in cuts, most of which won't take place until the end of the decade. Even so, budgets -- even fantasy ones -- are statements about priorities. Here are several weapons systems that remain prioritized. Amphibious Combat Vehicle ------------------------- The Marines really, really, want a tank that swims -- something that can get them from an amphibious assault ship to a beach under fire. (When they don't want to go by [jump jet](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/11/marines-jsf/), helicopter, or [tilt-rotor](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/v-22-ambush/), that is.) It hasn't had a new one [since the 1970s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_Amphibious_Vehicle) (shown above), and cost overruns [killed the next-generation Expeditionary Combat Vehicle](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/01/is-this-the-end-for-the-marines-swimming-tank/) in 2011. But almost immediately thereafter, the Marines planned on [going back to the drawing board](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/01/marines-next-swimming-tank-may-look-reeaally-familiar/). The Pentagon's new budget amps up R&D money for the so-called Amphibious Combat Vehicle: it asks Congress for $137 million this year, up from $95 million last year and $37 million the year before. *Photo: U.S. Marine Corps*
Senior Airman Julianne Showalter02f-35-joint-strike-fighter
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter ----------------------------- No big surprise here. The three versions of the stealth jet -- for the Air Force, Navy and Marines -- live to fly another day. Billed as the most advanced aircraft ever, it's also the [most expensive weapons program in human history](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/air-force-preps-f-35/). In all, the Pentagon proposes spending $8.4 billion for development and acquisition, to buy the Air Force 19 new F-35s, the Marines six and the Navy four. That's less than the $9.1 billion it wanted in last year's budget, but it's still the largest single thing the Pentagon wants to buy this year. *Photo: U.S. Air Force*
2008 The Boeing Company03ea-18g-growler-2
The EA-18G Growler ------------------ The Navy absolutely loves its new Growler, a flying jammer built onto an F/A-18 Super Hornet airframe that made its [combat debut above Libya](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/in-combat-debut-navy-jammer-targets-libyan-tanks/) two years ago. For the past two years, the Pentagon wanted a shade over a billion dollars annually for 12 electronic-attack jets. Now it's asking for $2.01 billion for 21 of them. *Photo: U.S. Navy*
04virginia-class-submarine
SSN-774 Virginia-Class Submarine -------------------------------- The stealthy, close-to-shore submarine is the one of the Navy's [premiere underwater spy tools](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/uss-mississippi/). In addition to its speed and its advanced sensors, the Navy wants it to be a platform for inserting commandos into dangerous places undetected. Requested funding for the Virginia-class sub rises this year to $5.4 billion for two boats -- one more than the Pentagon anticipated -- up from $4.2 billion last year and $4.79 billion the year before. *Photo: Mark Riffee/Wired.com*
Lockheed Martin05littoral-combat-ship-2
Littoral Combat Ship -------------------- Aside from the Virginia-class sub, the close-to-shore surface fighter is the star of the Navy's near-term shipbuilding budget. Of the eight ships and subs the Navy plans to build this year, four of them are Littoral Combat Ships -- and it plans to buy 10 more through 2018. All this dovetails with the [imminent arrival of the Littoral Combat Ship in Singapore](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/01/littoral-combat-ship/) for its maiden operational voyage. The [expensive](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/?p=50944) ship -- a modular platform for minehunting, sub-spotting and surface warfare -- now has to prove it can live up to the faith the Navy has placed in it. The Navy's asking for $2.38 billion this year, slightly up from the $2.33 billion it requested last year for the Littoral Combat Ship. *Photo: U.S. Navy*
06warfighter-information-network-tactical
Warfighter Information Network - Tactical ----------------------------------------- It took the Army nearly over a decade to construct a [data network](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/06/army-data-network-war/all/) that can push information down to dismounted soldiers on the move. But now that it's actually in use, as a pilot program in Afghanistan, the Army considers the network among its highest procurement priorities. (Important Senate panels [still aren't convinced](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/win-t/).) The new Army budget asks for nearly $1.28 billion to support and expand the WIN-T network, up slightly from the $1.23 billion it asked for last year. *Photo: Spencer Ackerman/Wired.com*
