DoD modernizing with current budget

Statement by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on the President's Fiscal Year 2024 Budget

"The FY 2024 budget is the most strategy-driven request we've ever produced from the Department of Defense. And as our National Defense Strategy makes clear, the People's Republic of China (PRC) is our pacing challenge. This budget seeks to meet this critical challenge today, tomorrow, and into the future by providing the resources today to continue to implement our National Defense Strategy and keep our nation safe while delivering a combat credible Joint Force that is the most lethal, resilient, agile, and responsive in the world.

As the PRC races to modernize its military, this budget will sharpen our edge by making critical investments across all timeframes, theaters, and domains. Among numerous important actions that bolster our combat credibility in the short term, this budget makes the Department's largest-ever investments in readiness and procurement – and our largest investment in research and development.

To sustain our military advantage over China, it makes major investments in integrated air and missile defenses and operational energy efficiency, as well as in our air dominance, our maritime dominance, and in munitions, including hypersonics. This budget includes the largest ever request for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which we are using to invest in advanced capabilities, new operational concepts, and more resilient force posture in the Indo-Pacific region. It also enables groundbreaking posture initiatives in Guam, Mariana Islands, the Philippines, Japan, and Australia.

We are also investing in resiliency in key parts of the defense supply chain to ensure stability in the industrial base's ability to produce what the Joint Force needs. That includes working closely with Congress to secure multi-year procurement authorities—and allow us to meet the needs of tomorrow. And this year's budget also increases funding to continue modernizing all three legs of our nuclear triad to maintain a safe, secure, and effective strategic deterrent against advanced and persistent threats around the world.

The United States has the strongest military in the world because we have the best team in the world. And we owe it to the brave men and women who serve to take care of our people and their families. So this budget includes the largest military and civilian pay raise in decades, and it builds on progress we've already made to make life a little easier by lowering every day costs, including by reducing the cost of goods in the commissary and making childcare more accessible and affordable.

As the Secretary of Defense, my priority will always be to ensure that our forces are ready and resilient, and that our military remains the world's preeminent fighting force, today, tomorrow, and for generations to come. I look forward to working with Congress to support the President's request."

On March 9, 2023, the Biden-Harris Administration submitted to Congress a proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Budget request of $842 billion for the Department of Defense (DoD), an increase of $26 billion over FY 2023 levels and $100 billion more than FY 2022. The FY 2024 Defense Budget is driven by strategy and provides us with the capabilities and investments to advance the Secretary's three key priorities: defending the nation, taking care of our people, and succeeding through teamwork.

To achieve these priorities, this budget request links strategy to resources to continue executing our 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS), which aligns with the President's National Security Strategy. These guiding documents determine the vision and direction of the Department of Defense in what the President has called the "decisive decade." The NDS outlines the Department's defense and security priorities:

Defending the homeland, paced to the growing multi-domain threat posed by the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Deterring strategic attacks against the United States, our allies, and our partners.

Deterring aggression, while being prepared to prevail in conflict when necessary - prioritizing the PRC challenge in the Indo-Pacific region, then the Russia challenge in Europe.

Building a resilient joint force and defense ecosystem.

The NDS positions the U.S. military to meet growing threats through integrated deterrence, campaigning, and taking actions that build enduring advantages. The FY 2024 DoD budget request of $842 billion enables the Department to successfully advance these defense and security goals by purposefully aligning resources to best position our warfighters, allies, and partners for success.

Integrated Deterrence

The FY 2024 President's Budget allows the DoD to invest in capabilities that will ensure we maintain a ready, lethal, and combat-credible joint force with a laser focus on China as the Department's pacing challenge and addressing the acute threat posed by Russia. The budget makes critical investments to revitalize the defense industrial base, drive innovation, and take care of our people. The FY 2024 budget request once again includes a record investment in research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) of $145 billion. This budget also funds $170 billion for procurement, the largest in history. Combined, these investments will ensure combat-credible forces across all domains.

Secretary Austin has called deterrence the "cornerstone of defense." In FY 2024, the DoD supports the concept of Integrated Deterrence by ensuring combat-credible forces and a safe, secure, and effective nuclear deterrent. Investments across all domains include:

$61.1 billion for air power to continue developing, modernizing, and procuring lethal air forces, including a focus on fighters, including F-22, F-35, F-15EX; the B-21 bomber, mobility aircraft, including KC-46A; specialized support aircraft; and unmanned aircraft systems.

$48.1 billion for sea power including new construction of nine battle force fleet ships and continued funding for the incremental construction of Ford class nuclear powered aircraft carriers and Columbia ballistic missile submarines.

$13.9 billion for land power supporting modernization of Army and Marine Corps combat equipment: Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle, Amphibious Combat Vehicle, and Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle.

$37.7 billion for Nuclear Enterprise Modernization, including:

Continued development and procurement of the B-21 program - $5.3 billion.

Production of the second Columbia ballistic missile submarine - $6.2 billion.

First year advance procurement funding for the LGM-35A Sentinel program.

Development efforts supporting nuclear command, control, and communications systems.

$29.8 billion to enhance Missile Defeat and Defense, including:

Development of the Next Generation Interceptor for Ground-Based Midcourse Defense, and extending the service life of the current interceptor fleet.

Increased investments in regional missile defense network with Patriot Missiles, a Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, additional Short-Range Air Defense Battalions, and hypersonic weaponry and defenses.