OTTAWA - Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's budget will see roughly one-fifth of all federal cuts over the next three years come out of the Defence Department.
It is a substantial hit for a department that for many years saw generous increases under the Harper government and whose budget had approached 21.2 billion dollars last year.
Under the plan tabled by Flaherty, a defence analyst estimates the overall defence budget will fall to roughly 19 billion dollars and change by 2014-15.
Brian MacDonald of the Conference of Defence Associations says it's hard to peg an exact figure because the government has only released initial figures and more information is yet to come.
Part of the budget hit can be attributed to moving the ultra-secret Communication Security Establishment out of the budget of National Defence into a stand-alone agency.
Some equipment purchases are being moved to future years.
The spending plan makes a point of saying that the government is committed to retiring the air force's aging CF-18 by "acquiring an affordable replacement."
That reference grabbed MacDonald's attention, who says we've not heard the phrase "affordable replacement" too often in the rhetoric surrounding the controversial F-35.
