The Biden administration asked Congress to approve a major boost in the Pentagon’s budget to $773 billion in the next fiscal year, an increase of $30 billion from what President Biden asked for last year. But even with more than $10 billion to address the immediate crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine, senior Republicans on Capitol Hill say the administration’s budget is inadequate to meet the twin challenges of an increasingly aggressive China and high inflation.
The Air Force is set to receive the largest slice of the taxpayer-funded pie. Its budget will jump from $220.6 billion in 2022 to $234.1 billion next year. The Navy will go from $220.3 to $230.9 billion, while the Army’s requested budget in 2023 will be $177.3 billion, compared to $173.4 billion the year prior. The numbers are virtually guaranteed to change as lawmakers weigh the administration’s blueprint.
“Our department’s budget will help us continue to defend the nation, take care of our people and succeed through teamwork with our allies and partners,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Monday in a statement. “We need resources matched to strategy, strategy matched to policy, and policy matched to the will of the American people.”
This year’s Pentagon budget included more than $14 billion in supplemental funding, including more than $4 billion for resettling Afghan refugees and $6.5 billion for supporting Ukraine following the invasion.
But despite the $30 billion proposed boost, Mr. Biden’s defense request represents a real increase of just 1.5% after inflation, defense officials said. Republicans have been pushing a real increase in defense spending of at least 5% in real terms.
The new budget recognizes China as the nation’s key strategic competitor, even though Russia remains “an acute threat” to U.S. interests and those of our allies.
“China is the pacing challenge and the budget’s going to reflect that,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told a Pentagon briefing late last week. “That challenge is getting greater over time, not less.”
The Pentagon is asking for more than $56 billion for airpower platforms and systems such as the F-35 and B-21 bomber; nearly $41 billion directed for sea power, including building nine more battle force ships, and more than $12 billion to modernize Army and Marine Corps combat vehicles. The Department of Defense is asking for more than $130 billion for research and development, a total the Pentagon says is an all-time high.
But Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the fiscal year 2023 budget neglects to “sufficiently account” for inflation. He has long said that “real growth” to the Defense Department budget would be 5% above inflation.
“The Chinese Communist Party understands hard power,” Mr. Inhofe said in a statement. “That’s why they announced a 7.1% defense budget increase this year, continuing their unprecedented military modernization and increasingly aggressive behavior.”
But Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed, Rhode Island Democrat, called the administration’s military budget “an outline and a starting point,” adding the panel will start hearings on the new numbers “in the coming weeks.”
The Defense Department is asking for a record $130 billion-plus for research and development in the budget, in order, officials said, to improve its ability to develop and respond to threats in technology, cyber warfare, space and artificial intelligence. Mr. Austin said the budget provides money to modernize the three legs of the nation’s nuclear triad — planes, ground sites and submarines capable of launching nuclear weapons — to preserve the U.S. deterrent force.
Mr. Inhofe said the Pentagon’s budget will mean shrinking the Navy’s fleet of warships and doesn’t address what he said was an anemic Air Force aircraft procurement system. While increasing the military’s research and development budget is laudable, any positive developments will take years to manifest, he said.
“Cuts to capabilities like the sea-launched cruise missile means we will lose ground against China and Russia’s rapidly expanding arsenals,” he said.
Mr. Reed said the services must divest themselves of platforms that are no longer capable of carrying out their missions, while pursuing other combat systems that continue to have important roles to play.
“The proposed continued investment in tried-and-true platforms like the Columbia and Virginia-class submarines is a prudent decision,” Mr. Reed said. “Belt-tightening in any department, particularly defense, is always a challenge but it is also an opportunity to evaluate what is necessary and what drives innovation.”
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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