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ASHINGTON, Jan. 6 — The Pentagon is pushing for a substantial increase, in the range of $20 billion or more, for its 2003 budget, confident that the war on terrorism has strengthened Congressional and public support for rebuilding the armed services, senior military officials say. Even as Congress is projecting a budget deficit next year, the Pentagon is arguing that it will need significantly more money to cover rising health care costs, stockpile precision-guided munitions and accelerate an array of big-ticket programs, including fighter jets and warships. "There is a real necessity to do something we didn't really address in the last budget, which is ramp up procurement," said Under Secretary of Defense Dov S. Zakheim, the Pentagon comptroller. "It's got to go up." Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld has also vowed to use the budget for the 2003 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, to advance programs he has said will "transform" the military, including missile defense, unpiloted aircraft and high-tech battlefield communications equipment. Mr. Rumsfeld is expected to argue, for instance, that the armed services must stockpile laser- and satellite- guided weapons for future conflicts. Those munitions, which cost from $20,000 to $1 million each, exceeded expectations in Afghanistan, where they were used so extensively that the Navy arsenal came close to running dry, officials say. The secretary will also call for developing munitions that can penetrate caves and hardened, deeply buried bunkers — one area where military officials say American bombs were not always effective in Afghanistan. North Korea and Iraq are thought to have built many such bunkers for command centers and storage sites for biological and chemical weapons. Officials say Mr. Rumsfeld will also push for accelerating a program to convert Trident submarines, which are now armed with nuclear- tipped missiles, so they can instead carry precision-guided cruise missiles with conventional warheads. Dr. Zakheim said the Pentagon budget was still being negotiated with the White House and declined to provide figures. But senior military and Congressional officials have said the increase will be about $20 billion over the current $329 billion Pentagon budget, or about 6 percent, after adjusting for inflation. A $20 billion increase in the Pentagon budget would be less than the $33 billion increase approved by Congress last year, the largest since the Reagan era. But the new request comes in an economic downturn, when other federal agencies are being told to trim spending to balance declining tax revenues.