“Bloomberg” disclosed that the total US defense budget in 2024 will exceed US$835 billion, which is higher than the US$816.7 billion allocated by the US Congress in fiscal year 2023, with an annual growth rate of 2.2%. Of this, $170 billion will be used to purchase existing weapons, while $145 billion will focus on long-term defense, research and development of new modern weapons.
“This budget will be the largest amount ever in ‘nominal’ dollars not adjusted for inflation,” said a senior U.S. administration official.
Pentagon weighs key factor in defense budget: Fighting Beijing
Although the weapons provided by the United States to Ukraine have greatly consumed the inventory of the US Department of Defense. But military spending to support Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s resistance to Russian aggression is separate and has been specially funded through supplementary funding. Therefore, “Bloomberg” pointed out that the escalating tension between the United States and the Chinese authorities is the main consideration factor for the Pentagon to determine its regular budget.
All along, the Pentagon sees Beijing as a “pace challenge” and Russia an “imminent threat”. However, with the recent series of “wolf warrior”-style and fierce roaring threats issued by the CCP authorities against the United States, the U.S. government and the opposition are carefully examining it. The Beijing regime is likely to become the number one opponent of the United States.
The Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet will be one of the major weapons systems to benefit from the proposed new U.S. budget, the most expensive weapons system program in U.S. history. The 2024 U.S. defense budget will request $13.5 billion for the acquisition, continued development and upgrade of the F-35 fighter jet. The Pentagon will apply for a total of 83 new F-35 fighter jets for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps to meet the needs of the various services. This includes 48 fighter jets equipped with the U.S. Air Force, and a total of 35 fighter jets provided to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
It is possible that the new F-35 fighter jets will eventually not only have 83, but will increase. The Biden administration applied for 61 last year, but the U.S. Congress added 19 more in this year’s final omnibus appropriations bill, bringing the total number of new F-35 fighter jets added to the U.S. military in 2023 to 80.
In the new U.S. defense budget, the procurement request of $170 billion is $8 billion more than the U.S. Congress allocated for this fiscal year (2023), while the research and development request is about $5 billion more than the amount approved by Congress. The budget also calls for substantial funding for long-range munitions for the U.S. Air Force and Navy that could be used in future conflicts with China, according to a U.S. administration official.
A spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget declined to comment on the budget figures. Mark Cancian, a former defense analyst at the White House Office of Management and Budget and now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, assessed that “the Pentagon’s next (next year) weapons modernization request reflects However, the budget remains largely focused on developing weapons for future wars rather than procuring weapons for near-term wars.”
“(The new budget) requests research and development spending that will be the highest ever, while procurement funding will be equal to levels not seen since the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Cancion said.
Elaine McCusker, former acting comptroller of the U.S. Department of Defense, said: “(The budget)’s strong focus on procurement will send important demand signals for industry, supply chains and labor.”
“I expect members of Congress to be interested in these topics and what exactly DoD is proposing to buy, both in terms of volume and timeliness of when those purchases will reach inventories, units and fleets,” he said.
