Over the last 5 years the HCS has seen a huge increase in spending of over 25% higher in real terms plus around 27 billion zarks worth of separate "one off" funding for projects like the CSM and the HCS Navy (though some of these have seen civilian applications such as a new satellite launcher based on the Gale-III). This has been funded by years of double digit growth for the Clone economy however as the economy has cooled over the last year (though growth is likely to continue) then HCS funding is likely to face a bit of a squeeze. A 2% increase in the defence budget has been agreed for 2111/12 though inflation will mean in real terms there will be a slight reduction overall.
A HCS source has said that some large projects may be delayed or scaled back though it is unlikely that anything will be cancelled outright. HCS bloggers predict that only the F-45C/K, CSM and Walrus SSBN projects are untouchable, everything else is likely to face some sort of downsizing or delay. The army could drop to 27 armoured divisions though this has been on the cards for some time. It is likely the navy's future carriers will be delayed until the next decade.
