President-elect Donald Trump's campaign promise to increase the size of the U.S. military could require more than $100 billion annually above current statutory limits -- and, if adopted, propel the Pentagon's base budget to more than $630 billion, according to a defense expert. Mark Cancian - a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and former chief of the Office of Management and Budget's force structure and investment division, said the defense plan Trump outlined before winning the Nov. 8 presidential election could cost as much as $80 billion a year more than the Obama administration's current plan. In a Sept. 7 address in Philadelphia, Trump pledged to ask Congress to "fully eliminate" the statutory spending caps required by the 2011 Budget Control Act and announced plans to propose a "new budget to rebuild our military."
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