The top Republicans on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees blasted Biden’s proposal as “wholly inadequate,” vowing they would fight to boost the Pentagon’s topline for 2022. Liberal lawmakers, meanwhile, have called on Biden to slash Pentagon funding to pay for domestic programs, setting up a possible funding showdown as Congress drafts its version of the Pentagon’s next budget. The request is smaller than the initial estimated Pentagon budget request for 2022 drafted during former President Donald Trump’s administration, which would have sought about $722 billion, matching calls from Republicans for at least 3-5% yearly growth in Defense Department funding.

troops and Defense Department civilian workers a 2.7% pay raise, earmark $617 million toward hardening military installations against the impacts of climate change, spend some $500 million on coronavirus pandemic-related efforts, and set aside $30.7 million to identify and address extremism in the ranks. The budget proposal would also provide U.S. That money will be spent largely on the development and procurement of hypersonic missiles, artificial intelligence and autonomous capabilities, microelectronics, and space and cyber technology, which Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin labeled critical to future combat operations. The 2022 budget request asks for more than $112 billion for research, development, testing and evaluation, an about 5% boost over the Pentagon’s 2021 RDT&E budget, which had been its largest-ever in that portfolio focused on future weaponry. “We are trying right now to put down payments on investments that are going to pay huge dividends 5, 10, 15 years from now for a future force that will be able to compete successfully with any adversary out there, to include China.” “It strikes an appropriate balance between preserving present readiness and future modernization, but it is biased toward the future operating environment and readiness,” Milley told House lawmakers during a hearing Thursday.

The 2022 budget request represents an essentially flat budget, seeking an increase in funds of 1.6% more than the 2021 Pentagon budget, moving some money used for current readiness in recent years to prepare for a future fight. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. President Joe Biden’s first Pentagon budget request places an emphasis on the future battlefield, with the Defense Department primarily focused on China, which seeks military parity with the United States in the coming years, said Army Gen. The Pentagon on Friday unveiled a $715 billion budget request for fiscal year 2022, asking Congress for the Defense Department’s largest-ever investment in developing next-generation weaponry that top defense officials cite as necessary to maintain military advantages over China and Russia.

Future fight never spent money