President Joe Biden speaks at the White House in February.
President Joe Biden is proposing a 3.2% jump in Pentagon spending, allocating $842 billion for fiscal 2024, with a focus on increasing capacity in the Pacific and nuclear modernization, the White House announced March 9.
While full details of the budget plan will not be released until March 13, a White House outline of the spending plan states the 2024 request is a $26 billion increase from the fiscal 2023 enacted level.
A series of budget fact sheets include two specific funding numbers within the Pentagon budget. The first is $9.1 billion in targeted investments the Pentagon would make in the Pacific, focusing on force posture, infrastructure, presence and readiness along with other efforts to increase the capabilities of allies in the region primarily west of the international date line. This is a $3 billion increase to the 2023 Pacific Deterrence Initiative fund.
Secondly, the budget will include $37.7 billion for the Pentagon to spend on nuclear deterrence. The spending proposal supports the nuclear triad, including ongoing modernization programs such as the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, B-21 Raider, Ohio-class submarine, and nuclear command, control and communication networks.
The budget also highlights increased support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, including $6 billion in unspecified aid.
The White House says the budget will include investments to speed up critical weapons and munitions production lines, develop new long-range strike, undersea, hypersonic and autonomous systems, and increase the resiliency of space architectures for sensing and communication.
The budget proposal also includes a prioritization on new research and development for “breakthrough technologies that drive innovation, support capacity in the defense technology industrial base, ensure American technological leadership, and underpin the development of future defense capabilities,” the White House says in a statement. This includes investments in microelectronics, submarine construction, munitions production and biomanufacturing.”
The budget would fund a procurement of crewed aircraft while also modernizing fighter, bomber, mobility and training aircraft. It also accelerates the development of uncrewed aircraft and relevant autonomy. While the materials released do not include specifics, U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced March 7 that the service is planning to field 1,000 uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft that will fly with 200 Next Generation Air Dominance platforms and F-35s.
Kendall tells Aerospace DAILY the Air Force’s share of the budget would include increased research and development spending for this and a large increase for the U.S. Space Force, though no specifics are available yet.
