[jyl]

Looks to me like $150MM buys only about 300 additional heads for the Army.

The Army projects it will need $40 billion annually above current spending levels once a planned 74,200 troops are added, according to a draft service report for the Obama transition team.

The report says the planned force of 1.1 million soldiers would require a budget of “$170 billion to $180 billion per year to sustain,” well above the 2009 budget of about $140 billion.

A draft copy of the 43-page document, labeled “predecisional” and dated November 2008, was obtained by Defense News, a sister publication of Army Times.

In early 2007, the Bush administration proposed swelling the Army, as well as the Marine Corps, by early next decade. Congress approved the plan. Army officials have hinted for months that a larger force will require a bigger annual budget. What has been missing, however, are specific cost estimates like those included in the transition paper.

Naturally, with the grow-the-Army plan, the U.S. will need personnel dollars and extra dollars for equipping, said one Army official familiar with service planning.

Independent defense budget analysts have estimated that just recruiting and training 10,000 soldiers costs $1.2 billion a year. The entire proposed increase is expected to cost about $80 billion through 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office and independent budget analysts.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/12/army_obama_memo_122208w/

Originally Posted by Jim Sims

"have a near peer war that does not go nuclear."

All the near peers that could threaten air superiority have nuclear weapons - when in the history of war did the losing side in a near peer war hold back from using effective weapons? Why did we desperately and immediately resupply Israel when they appeared to be losing during the Yom Kippur war?

It is road side bombs and IEDs that are killing US troops not Taliban fighter planes or Russian submarines. Current military spending priorities don't meet current needs. 150 million dollars can put a lot of "boots on the ground" with proper equipment and support for the current mission.