The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Photo U.S. Air Force
6 Weapons That Love The New Pentagon Budget -- Danger Room
Drones didn't do so well 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" 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 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.
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My Comment: I would also add the Ohio-class replacement subs onto this list.