2024-03-10 02:46:19
The administration of US President Joe Biden will ask Congress to increase the defense budget by 1%, to $849.8 billion, in the 2025 fiscal year (beginning October 1).
As Day.Az reports with reference to RBC, sources told Bloomberg about this.
This is about $10 billion less than planned; the agency notes that the administration is limited by last year’s agreement with congressmen to raise the debt ceiling. It implied that national security spending in the next fiscal year would not exceed $895.2 billion, with the Pentagon accounting for about 95% of this amount.
According to agency sources, the administration will require $167.5 billion for the purchase of weapons systems and $143.2 billion for research and development (instead of the expected $175.3 billion and $145 billion). According to Bloomberg, the White House wants to reduce the number of F-35 fighter jets that the Pentagon plans to purchase from Lockheed Martin from 83 to 70. In addition, according to the administration’s plan, in the new year the US Navy will receive one new Virginia-class nuclear submarine instead two.
These expenses do not include spending on nuclear development, which is carried out by the US Department of Energy.
The Office of Management and Budget and the Pentagon did not comment on the Bloomberg data.
Despite the planned cuts, the United States is still the leader in military spending, the agency notes. In second place is China, which this week announced its intention to increase its defense budget by 7.2%, to a record 1.67 trillion yuan ($231 billion).
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