Pentagon, juggling Russia, China, seeks billions for long-range weapons

The Pentagon on Monday unveiled details about its $842 billion budget proposal, outlining plans for increased investment in long- range missiles and other advanced munitions as it balances the impact of continued military support for Ukraine with rising concerns about a potential conflict with China.

The spending plan represents a 3.2% increase over the Defense Department’s fiscal 2023 budget approved by Congress in December and was instantly deemed inadequate by Republicans, who indicated that they would revise it upward, as they did last year. Rep. Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, last week slammed President Joe Biden’s planned budget for both expanding the national debt and investing less in defense than the current inflation rate of 6.4%

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said Monday that the Pentagon intends to invest $30.6 billion in munitions in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. That is up nearly 12 percent from this year’s budget.

A year of war in Ukraine, which is reliant on Western arms to defend against Russia’s invasion, has diminished U.S. stocks and exposed shortcomings in the nation’s military manufacturing might. The war also has underscored how significant long- range weapons are expected to be in any major future conflict and as the Pentagon prepares for the possibility of disputes with China.

“When it comes to munitions, make no mistake: We are buying to the limits of the industrial base even as we are expanding those limits, and we’re continuing to cut through red tape and accelerate timelines,” Hicks said.

It was unclear on Monday whether the investment also signals a planned expansion in the number of munitions the Pentagon keeps in its stockpile. While Biden administration officials have approved billions of dollars in weapons transfers from the U. S. arsenal to Ukraine, they have declined to specify how many of each kind are left, citing security concerns. Hicks, when asked Monday, would not say whether the United States will increase the number of munitions it keeps on hand.

Among the weapons the Pentagon plans to invest in heavily in 2024 are air-to-air missiles, air- to- surface missiles, long- range anti- ship missiles, and aerial bombs known as joint direct attack munitions (JDAMs), according to Pentagon documents. Defense officials also want to invest in the guided multiple- launch rocket system (GMLRS), a weapon that the Biden administration has provided Ukrainian forces to strike Russian targets with artillery rocket launchers.