Pentagon’s historic $773B budget request doesn’t account for Russian invasion of Ukraine

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has proposed its biggest defense budget in history, requesting $773 billion for fiscal year 2023 as the department seeks to significantly boost funds for technologies needed to keep pace against China.

Total national security funding for FY23 comes to $813.3 billion when including the $40 billion for defense-related expenses shouldered by other agencies such as the Department of Energy and Department of Homeland Security.

Taking inflation into account, the Pentagon’s $773 billion request represents 1.5% in real growth when compared to the $742 billion FY22 enacted budget.

However, those looking for answers about how the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine will impact US defense spending will have to wait, as the budget was set in stone before Russia invaded Ukraine this February.

The FY23 budget will hit the streets as the Pentagon sends the classified version of the National Defense Strategy to Congress. Although an unclassified version of the strategy has not been released, the NDS maintains China as the top “pacing challenge” for the US military while describing Russia as “an acute threat” to US interests, according to budget documents.

“The budget was done before Russia invaded Ukraine. That does not mean that our strategy is off in any way,” a senior defense official told reporters ahead of the budget release.

READ MORE ABOUT THE FY23 BUDGET:

• Army’s $177.5B budget request will ‘maintain’ momentum on modernization, but cuts vehicle buys
• Navy wants to add 9 new ships but decommission 24 in FY23 budget request
• F-35 cuts, F-15 boost, and E-3 replacement: Air Force’s $170B budget makes big moves in FY23
• Space Force budget gets a big boost to $24.5B in FY23, focus on resilience
• Biden administration kills Trump-era nuclear cruise missile program
• Air Force ending procurement of HH-60W combat rescue helicopter in FY23

In another departure from standard practices, the Pentagon delivered its budget to Capitol Hill without the “justification books” that lay out detailed information on weapons programs, operations and maintenance and personnel funds, meaning that much of the specifics have not been released.

The FY23 request includes $177.3 billion for the Army, $230.9 billion for the Navy and Marine Corps, $234.1 for the Air Force and Space Force and $130 billion for department-wide activities. Although all of the services’ budgets grew in FY23 compared to last year’s budget, the Department of the Air Force emerged as the biggest winner, adding about $14 billion in spending.

Across the board, development funding for new tech grew by 9.5 percent, hitting a high of $130.1 billion in FY23. That sum includes $16.5 billion for science and technology projects and $250 million for 5G experimentation.

One of the biggest questions going forward is how the ongoing war in Ukraine could shift US spending, as the Pentagon ramps up activities with NATO allies in Eastern Europe and transfers equipment to the Ukrainian military.

The Pentagon requests $4.2 billion for the European Deterrence Initiative, an increase of $360 million from the enacted FY22 budget, according to a department fact sheet. The EDI — which pays for activities in Europe meant to deter Russian aggression, such as investments in infrastructure and training exercises with partners — also includes $300 million for the Ukrainian Security Assistance Initiative.

According to the senior defense official, the funding level for EDI and other spending related to Ukraine “had been baked in” the budget before Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

The official added that is was “certainly” possible that there could be additional supplemental funding requested for the Ukrainian military. “Probably the primary reason that would happen … [is if] the Ukrainians continue to put up a strong resistance and used everything we gave them and asked us for more [equipment],” the official said.

However, depending on the timing of the request, that funding could come in fiscal 2022 instead of waiting until FY23.

In addition to spending on near-term needs in Europe, the Pentagon requested $6.1 billion for the Indo-Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which will fund “critical investment” in “integrated fires, new missile warning and tracking architecture,” military construction projects, additional defense-related funding for Guam, and funds for information sharing, training and experimentation with international allies and partners.

As the defense industry emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pentagon continues to make investments into suppliers of critical technologies, including to five areas where “vulnerabilities pose the most pressing threat to national security.”

That funding includes $3.3 billion for microelectronics, $605 million for “kinetic capabilities” that include tech associated with hypersonic and directed energy weapons, $48 million for casting and forging, $43 million for batteries and energy storage, and $253 million for critical materials.