[ANALYSIS] CFR: Obama Expected To Up Drone Spending

The Council on Foreign Relations' Greg Bruno reports on "Defense Spending During Economic Crisis." Among his findings:

Beyond ending the war in Iraq and shifting focus to Afghanistan, Obama said he would expand mental health services for veterans, and increase spending on aviation programs like unmanned aerial vehicles and the KC-X aerial refueling tanker. Other defense pledges were less precise. For instance, Obama said he would "rebuild the military for 21st Century tasks," but offered few specifics—other than adding troops—on how he would do that.[...]

[T]he reliance by ground force commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan on unmanned aerial vehicles poses an even more fundamental challenge to a force based on highly-trained pilots flying multibillion dollar hardware. These shifts could challenge funding for programs like the F-22.