The Marine Corps and its slice of the bugetary pie

[usmarinemike]

I wonder what the annual budget/Marine is compared to the budget/Soldier. I'll bet it's becoming less stellar than it used to be.

 

[CumminsPilot]

I wonder what the annual budget/Marine is compared to the budget/Soldier. I'll bet it's becoming less stellar than it used to be.

From General Conway on Sept 1, 2009 at a brief at TBS:

$62,000/year/Marine

$82,000/year/soldier


USMC rates 6% of DOD budget.

 

[usmarinemike]

From General Conway on Sept 1, 2009 at a brief at TBS:

$62,000/year/Marine

$82,000/year/soldier


USMC rates 6% of DOD budget.

Good stuff. Gotta be nonpayroll/housing cost, though. I wonder what else is spun out of the numbers.

 

[Flash]

From General Conway on Sept 1, 2009 at a brief at TBS:

$62,000/year/Marine

$82,000/year/soldier

USMC rates 6% of DOD budget.

When you don't have docs, thousands of tanks, numerous specialist units, and very little in the way of 'big' tranportation, you can do things on the cheap.

 

[Reconjoe]

From General Conway on Sept 1, 2009 at a brief at TBS:

$62,000/year/Marine

$82,000/year/soldier


USMC rates 6% of DOD budget.

Semper Gumbi

 

[usmarinemike]

When you don't have docs, thousands of tanks, numerous specialist units, and very little in the way of 'big' tranportation, you can do things on the cheap.

So not a fan, huh?

I'd say our numbers of tanks and specialized units are proportionate to the rest of the service. You can't fault anybody for lift capabilities, Navy and AF intentionally own all those assets. You got me on the medical services. That's a huge budget item that would appear the Marine Corps gets away with not highlighting.

As for 22 mil for the gun/ISR system/hellfire, it is a deal in that the Marine Corps didnt have to buy any more single role HERCs to get a capability that even the rifleman knew the Marine Corps could benefit greatly from.

 

[Flash]

So not a fan, huh?

I'd say our numbers of tanks and specialized units are proportionate to the rest of the service. You can't fault anybody for lift capabilities, Navy and AF intentionally own all those assets. You got me on the medical services. That's a huge budget item that would appear the Marine Corps gets away with not highlighting.

Just not a fan of misleading figures, monetary and female.

While the Marines do take up a relatively small portion of the budget there are quite a few things that they don't pay for but are critical to the service. Much of it is paid for by the Navy, but they piggyback off other services too. The Navy League's magazine, Seapower, had an article about the USMC budget in their July issue. It states in the article that it is difficult to come up with total Marine budget number, because many of their programs are supported by Navy funds. This includes much of their aviation and construction funding. In the article they put the baseline Marine budget for FY2010 at $26.5 billion, out of a DoD total of $533.8 billion, close to the 6% figure claimed. But the total going to the Marines is estimated to be at $46.6 billion, including $9.2 billion for Marine flying hours, aircraft procurement and research and development. Add the use of Army and Navy training and facilities, medical support and the Navy gator fleet, you can see where the extra money adds up (and even some of that is not counted). Still a smaller part of the budget, but a bit more than 6%.

This is not a hit against the USMC, at least not a big one , they have their mission and I admire their focus on it. In my experience though the Marines have always played a numbers game that was a bit fast and loose, both big and small. So we can let the Marines have their 6%, but with only that they wouldn't be going too much.

 

[Lawman]

The Marine Corps does not have the diversity of Combat Arms we have. If you did you wouldnt be self sufficient either. Hell ask Conway how much he liked Riding around Iraq in Alabama National Guard Hawks performing the VIP missiong (my instrument IP got a coin from him).


Heres my question though. If the Herc's primary job is to move cargo and help maintain that self sufficiency the Corps prides its self on, and your not gonna buy any Hercs for this mission, what is the purpose of taking Cargo Aircraft and making them do something that could be done with UCAVs and not cost a C-130 from your tool box to go hunting bad guys in the hills when it could be moving supplies, men, and equipment....

 

[Clux4]

"Do more with less" is a Marine Corps mantra!

 

[Hotdogs]

Just not a fan of misleading figures, monetary and female.

While the Marines do take up a relatively small portion of the budget there are quite a few things that they don't pay for but are critical to the service. Much of it is paid for by the Navy, but they piggyback off other services too. The Navy League's magazine, Seapower, had an article about the USMC budget in their July issue. It states in the article that it is difficult to come up with total Marine budget number, because many of their programs are supported by Navy funds. This includes much of their aviation and construction funding. In the article they put the baseline Marine budget for FY2010 at $26.5 billion, out of a DoD total of $533.8 billion, close to the 6% figure claimed. But the total going to the Marines is estimated to be at $46.6 billion, including $9.2 billion for Marine flying hours, aircraft procurement and research and development. Add the use of Army and Navy training and facilities, medical support and the Navy gator fleet, you can see where the extra money adds up (and even some of that is not counted). Still a smaller part of the budget, but a bit more than 6%.

This is not a hit against the USMC, at least not a big one , they have their mission and I admire their focus on it. In my experience though the Marines have always played a numbers game that was a bit fast and loose, both big and small. So we can let the Marines have their 6%, but with only that they wouldn't be going too much.

Little off topic..but tell that to the 5 Lts and 1 Brownbagger stuck in one BOQ room that is meant for 2. However If the Marines add in the numbers for the ships needed to support their MEUs...it would probably be larger.