New York – Largest peacetime armed step by a US president Joe Biden materializes in the afternoon in Washington when the White House unveils the request to Congress for a super budget of 886 billion dollars for the Pentagon for fiscal year 2024.
It is the largest request for defense money since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and in which there is everything: from increased pay for soldiers to the record allocation for research, from the production of missiles, anti-tank rockets , hunting, nuclear weapons. Biden looks to the conflict in Ukraine, more than a year after the Russian invasion, but also to China with which tensions continue to grow, and Iran.
The amount requested includes the 842 billion destined for the Pentagon to which must be added the 44 billion requested for the defense program of the FBI and other government agencies. There is more than $30 billion in the budget for missiles and munitions, a 12 percent increase in the budget from last year. In total, Biden has asked for 2024 to increase military spending by 28 billion compared to 858 billion last year. “We will measure success by how many times the People’s Republic of China’s leadership wakes up with the idea of launching an attack but then says, ‘Today is not the right day,’ said Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks. “.
Relations between the US and China have become increasingly tough, from the case of the spy balloon to the use of technologies, from military research to the satellite duel. In the folds of the figures there is something more than a simple, albeit powerful, numerical sum: the White House wants money to close multi-year contracts for the construction of missiles and ammunition, following the pattern used over the years for planes and ships. Missiles as products to be churned out every year, for many years, and which will see in the front row the billion-dollar orders for Raytheon Technologies Corp, Lockheed Martin Corp and Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc. The contractors have already promised to double the production of Javelin anti-tank missiles and the Himars, the light multiple rocket launchers, sent to Kiev.
The war in Ukraine has shown the Pentagon that there is a need to produce more weapons, or risk running out of ammunition. The more weapons the United States has, it is the conviction of the White House, the stronger the deterrent will be also towards China. It’s a Cold War arms race, but in a new, next-generation, nuclear version. “We want to push the boundaries of industrial production,” the Pentagon added. The 145 billion provided for research aim at the creation of hypersonic missiles capable of escaping radar systems. Russia has used three in Ukraine. The administration has requested another seven billion dollars in military aid for Ukraine, and $23.6 billion for the Energy Department as part of a plan to modernize the nuclear arsenal for use by sea, land and air. And then the military fighters: the 2023 budget envisaged the construction of 61 F-35s, a figure that Congress later brought to 77. In the budget for 2024, the number rose to 83.