2020 Called Pivotal Year For Military Buildup.

• Position: BUDGET MATTERS

* The much-ballyhooed military buildup promised by President Donald Trump isn't expected to kick into high gear until fiscal year 2020. However, political winds could blow the project off track.

The fiscal year 2019 budget request, slated to be released in February, will be "a step up" from current spending levels, Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters at the Pentagon in December. But "you'll see [the buildup] much more alive in POM '20," he said referring to the next program objective memorandum budget planning cycle.

Last year's fiscal blueprint called for $586.6 billion in base discretionary spending for the Defense Department in 2019, and $598.9 billion in 2020. Shanahan did not disclose what the new proposed toplines would be.

Shanahan cited the need to develop the Pentagon's new national defense strategy while also trying to build the 2019 budget as a key reason why military modernization isn't projected to ramp up until 2020.

Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense budget analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, tweeted that she expects the 2019 request to include "a few program increases, new starts and hyped-up tech investments, but overall no dramatic changes" relative to the previous year.

In contrast, Shanahan said the 2020 budget would be a "masterpiece."

"This is where many of the bets in terms of innovation and some of the new technology will take place," he said.

However, a failure by lawmakers to repeal the military spending caps imposed by the Budget Control Act of...