Diverting From Norm, Army Sends Hill 2017-2018 Wish Lists: Diverting from normal practice, the US Army has outlined in wish lists sent to Congress what it would need in the next two years in order to catch up on lagging modernization efforts and accommodate troop increases mandated in the recently passed defense policy bill.
Congress passed its National Defense Authorization Act in December that requires the Army to increase its end-strength by 16,000 more soldiers than originally planned. And President Donald Trump has pledged a troop plus-up to 540,000.
What hasn’t been determined is how much funding the Army will get in the fiscal year 2017 budget and beyond to cope with a large troop increase at a time it was drastically shrinking the force under the previous administration.
The first wish list is designed to meet the needs of a 476,000-strong active force in 2017 and the second list addresses 2018 plans for an active Army of 490,000. If Congress included all of the Army's "unfunded requirements" in its budget, the service has calculated it would need an additional $8.2 billion not included in 2017 and an additional $18.3 billion on top of its yet-to-be-released 2018 budget request.
