The Marine Corps will get funding for 3,000 additional troops in the fiscal 2017 defense budget, according to a compromise version of the bill released this week.
The fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act would allow the service to grow from 182,000 to 185,000, even as it reorganizes the top leadership structure. The 3,000 additional troops would represent the first plus-up in years for the Marine Corps, which has been tasked with drawing down from a wartime high of 202,000 since 2011, and would return the service to a pre-war end strength.
The additional troops, if the bill is approved by the president and funded by an appropriations measure, likely would be used to bulk up the Corps’ cyber, information warfare and electronic warfare communities — a key growth area that senior service leaders have repeatedly emphasized over the past year..”
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