The US Air Force asked the Pentagon's leadership for a staggering $50 billion in emergency funding for fiscal 2007 - nearly half its annual budget, defence analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute said on Tuesday.
The request is expected to draw criticism on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are increasingly worried about the huge sums being sought and approved "off budget" to fund wars, escaping the more rigorous congressional oversight of regular budgets.
Another source familiar with the Air Force plans said the extra funds would help pay to transport growing numbers of US soldiers being killed and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thompson, who has close ties to US military officials, said the big emergency funding request was fuelled in part by Deputy Defence Secretary Gordon England. In an October 25 memo, England encouraged the services to broaden the range of emergency costs to include the "longer war on terror," not just the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Air Force's proposed emergency budget is nearly half the $105.9 billion it requested as its total base budget for fiscal year 2007, which began on October 1.
The Air Force had no immediate comment. The Army, which got the lion's share of an initial $70 billion supplemental budget passed by Congress last month, is asking for more than $80 billion in additional funds for the second half of fiscal 2007, according to published reports. The Navy is also expected to seek funds for the Marine Corps.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will decide on the supplemental funding requests on November 15, according to the England memo, reported by Inside Defence last week.
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