Marine Corps budget request reflects new focus - News - Stripes: President Barack Obama is calling for a 7 percent increase in the Marine Corps budget as the service seeks to buy new high-tech platforms while returning to its roots as an expeditionary, emergency response force.
The president’s fiscal 2016 budget request, released Monday, seeks $24 billion for the Marines base budget, an increase of $1.6 billion. It also proposes $1.3 billion for Marine Corps “overseas contingency operations”, also known as OCO.
About $1.1 billion of the Marines’ budget would go toward procurement, as the service focuses on post-Afghanistan missions.
For more than a decade after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Marine Corps was engaged in slogging counterinsurgency warfare. But the last contingent of Marines in Afghanistan withdrew last fall, and other hot spots have grabbed the Pentagon’s attention.
The Marine Corps is in the process of rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific and has been tasked to respond to crises in Africa and the Middle East.
