US defence budget to fall amid troop pull-out from Iraq

Feb 14, 2011, 23:38 GMT

Washington - The United States' total spending on defence was projected on Monday to fall next year for the first time since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, amid savings from drawdowns of US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The budget for the US Department of Defence will drop from 708 billion dollars in the fiscal year 2011, which ends in September, to 671 billion dollars in 2012.

Most of the savings will come from Iraq, where the military plans to pull out all troops by the end of this year. President Barack Obama has said he wants to begin reducing the number of troops in Afghanistan this summer.

The combined budget for the two wars is slated to fall to 118 billion dollars in 2012 from 159 billion dollars this year. Excluding spending on Iraq and Afghanistan, the military's base budget is slated to edge up from 549 billion dollars this year to 553 billion dollars in 2012.

US military spending for Iraq will plummet to just over 10 billion dollars next year from more than 45 billion dollars this year. The budget for Afghanistan will fall only slightly to 107 billion dollars in 2012 from 113 billion dollars this year.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the money for Afghanistan marked a 'conservative' estimate that involved keeping nearly 100,000 troops in the country through 2012, but added that was very unlikely.

'Depending on the size of the drawdowns ... that may be money we just don't spend,' Gates told reporters.