CBO was asked to examine the effects on U.S. forces of a substantially smaller defense budget. Because forces can be reduced in many ways depending on the military strategy adopted, CBO created three broad options to illustrate the range of strategies that the United States could pursue under a budget that would be cut gradually by a total of $1 trillion (in 2022 dollars), or 14 percent, between 2022 and 2031.

Read the report