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THE DEFENSE BUDGET GAME
Purpose The purpose of this exercise
is to provide students with an understanding of the dynamics of the defense budget process. During the preliminary phase of the game, students will identify and discuss various military threats to the nation and to our
national interests and will develop a consensus on which are the most important and immediate threats. Having established this essential framework, students will assume the roles of different officials in the Department of
Defense who attempt to influence the size and composition of the defense budget. Background The defense budget can be considered in a variety of illuminating ways. Most of all, the defense
budget should provide the resources to meet the threats to the United States. Budgetary constraints, however, require that funds be allocated for the most important threats and functions needed to support an effective
military force. Lower military priorities should be reflected by lower funding levels in order to keep within overall budgetary constraints. Failure to remain within budgetary constraints results in deficit spending for
the nation which can have a significant impact on the nation's economy. The budget can be categorized according to function and military service. A functional breakdown of the defense budget would include:
1. Military Personnel A service
breakdown of the budget would reflect the amounts of funding allocated to each military service, to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and to the Department of Energy which manages the nation's stockpile of nuclear weapons:
1. Army Each of the military services and the Department of Energy have particular missions to perform and contributions to make in implementing United States military national security strategy. The Navy, for example,
is responsible for projecting military power overseas, particularly to regions where the United States has no permanent military facilities under its jurisdiction. Aircraft carrier battle groups are regularly deployed
overseas to provide an American military presence to ensure military balance and stability in regions that could threaten our interests. Ballistic missile submarines are regularly deployed to ensure that we have nuclear
weapons on alert that could survive any attack and could respond with a devastating nuclear strike — a key element to our strategy of "deterrence". Navy submarines are also equipped with conventionally armed long range cruise
missiles that can strike targets with pinpoint accuracy. Such missiles were used against terrorist facilities in recent years. A similar discussion of military assets, contributions, and problems of each
of the other military services and the Department of Energy will be provided as additional background information needed to play the simulation game. The Players
Students will be asked to volunteer for the following roles in the simulation game:
Other students will act as advisors to these officials to help the military secretaries formulate their organizations' respective recommendations to the Secretary of Defense. The Secretary of Energy will also
have volunteer advisors.
2. Retired Pay
3. Operations and Maintenance
4. Research Development Testing and Evaluation
5. Procurement
6. Military Construction
7. Family Housing
8. Nuclear weapons – Department of Energy
2. Navy
3. Air Force
4. Marine Corps
5. Office of the Secretary of Defense
6. Department of Energy
