To date, 17 unfunded priorities lists have been made public this year, identifying a total of $29.4 billion in defense budget shortfalls. (Cyber Command, Strategic Command, and Transportation Command have noted no unfunded needs.)
These unfunded priorities equate to about 3.5 percent of the president’s $850 billion budget request. Since inflation remains at about 3.5 percent in the United States and the pay raise for military members is 4.5 percent, the budget request’s topline increase of 1 percent, when combined with the unfunded priorities lists’ 3.5 percent in additional funding, would keep the Pentagon at a real growth rate of roughly zero.
The commander of Indo-Pacific Command dominates the lists by asking for $11 billion. This is about 37.6 percent of the entire unfunded priorities list request, and it tops Indo-Pacific Command’s needs last year by more than $7.5 billion.