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14 Mar 24. DOD Applauds Funding for Pacific’s Freely Associated States.
Representatives of the Defense Department, State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development testified today at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, welcoming enactment of legislation providing funding for the Freely Associated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau.
The funding legislation, signed March 9 by President Joe Biden, provides $7.1bn to the islands, to be distributed over a 20-year period.
Under the compacts of Freely Associated States, the U.S. provides guaranteed financial assistance in exchange for defense guarantees.
Ely S. Ratner, assistant secretary for Indo-Pacific security affairs, testified that this legislation will maintain America’s commitment to the Freely Associated States.
“From a national security perspective, the Pacific Islands form an essential part of a strategically vital region,” Ratner said.
“The U.S. military’s access and posture in the Pacific Islands are crucial for our logistics, sustainment and power projection throughout the region. Moreover, hundreds of billions of dollars in maritime trade flow through the Pacific Islands and our partners there provide critical linkages between the continental United States and our allies across the Indo-Pacific,” he said.
That’s why the United States is strengthening its diplomatic, economic and security ties throughout the Pacific Islands. And it’s why the department plays a significant role in deepening these partnerships and sustaining its defense posture and presence, he said.
The significance of these agreements isn’t only about building capacity through security cooperation. “We’re conducting humanitarian assistance and disaster relief activities with our partners. We’re also working together with allies and partners like Australia, Japan and New Zealand. More than ever, we’re devoting attention and resources that reflect the strategic significance of this region,” he said.
The compacts ensure that the United States can maintain a military presence in the Freely Associated States, and they enable compacts island citizens to serve in the U.S. military, he said.
These compacts provide assured access for DOD operations, and they prevent would-be adversaries from accessing sovereign FAS land, airspace and territorial waters, Ratner said.
Other Pacific islands are also important to DOD’s Pacific defense posture, he said, mentioning Hawaii, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Papua New Guinea and American Samoa.
Last year, the U.S. and Papua New Guinea signed a “landmark” Defense Cooperation Agreement, he noted.
The importance of the Pacific to U.S. and regional security is critical, at a time when China is drawing from a range of coercive tools in an attempt to erode longstanding U.S. partnerships, and advance Beijing’s own influence, he said.
In recent years, these activities have included covert efforts to bribe local officials, economic pressure against sovereign nations that maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing that harms both the environment and local economies, he testified.
Ratner emphasized the whole-of-government approach to engaging with Pacific partners, lauding the efforts of the other officials also testifying: Daniel J. Kritenbrink, assistant secretary at the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs; and, Michael Schiffer, the USAID’s assistant administrator of the Bureau for Asia. (Source: U.S. DoD)
14 Mar 24. FY2025 budget proposal underscores concern over Chinese infrastructure investments. On 11 March, President Joe Biden sent his FY2025 USD 7.3trn budget proposal to Congress. The proposal includes a request by the State Department for USD 4bn over five years to ‘outcompete China’. The money would create an international infrastructure fund to provide an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in developing countries. Additional funds would provide aid to Indo-Pacific nations. On the same day, the 2024 Annual Threat Assessment by the US Intelligence Community named China as a top national security threat. The budget signals that strategic competition with China will be a top focus for Biden if he is elected for a second term. In the long term, we assess that US-China relations are likely to remain strained due to sustained bipartisan concerns over national security risks. (Source: Sibylline)
11 Mar 24. Department of Defense Releases the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Defense Budget. Statement by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Defense Budget.
“The President’s budget request for the Department of Defense is once again rooted in our 2022 National Defense Strategy, which continues to enable us to match our national resources to our national objectives. This request will bolster our ability to defend our country, paced to the challenge posed by an increasingly aggressive People’s Republic of China. It will better posture us to deter aggression against the United States, or our allies and partners, while also preparing us to prevail in conflict if necessary. It will continue to forge a more resilient joint force and a modern defense ecosystem, built for the security challenges of the 21st century. And it will strengthen the unmatched global network of alliances and partnerships that magnifies our power and deepens our security.
This budget request is consistent with the funding levels approved by Congress under the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. Under these caps, we made difficult but responsible decisions focusing on maintaining our military’s readiness and taking care of our personnel. So our budget request reflects targeted reductions to programs delivering key capabilities in later years to support the joint force’s ability to fight and win in the near term.
We must continue to invest in cutting-edge defense capabilities and to advance new operational concepts across domains, from advanced cyber systems and enhanced space capabilities to a modernized nuclear triad. This budget request also reflects a deep commitment to our people, who will always be the Department’s greatest strategic asset; we hope to raise basic pay, boost quality-of-life initiatives, and promote safety and accountability.
Moreover, this request will enable the Department to deepen cooperation with our interagency colleagues, industry, academia, allies, and partners. Through cooperative defense initiatives, multilateral joint exercises, and shared technology development, we will enhance our capabilities and help make America and the world more secure.
Since my first day as Secretary of Defense, I have focused on three priorities: defending the Nation, taking care of our people, and succeeding through teamwork. President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget request advances each of these priorities.
As Congress writes authorizing and appropriations legislation in the months ahead, I am grateful for Members’ support for the budget and the mission of the Department of Defense.”
The President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request for the Department of Defense
On March 11, 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration submitted to Congress a proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 budget request of $849.8bn for the Department of Defense (DoD), consistent with the caps approved by Congress under the Financial Responsibility Act (FRA) of 2023. The FY 2025 defense budget request provides the capabilities and investments to advance the Secretary’s three key priorities: defending the United States, taking care of our people, and succeeding through teamwork.
To achieve these priorities, this budget request links our strategic goals to our resources to continue executing our 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS), which aligns with the President’s National Security Strategy. These guiding documents determine the 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 challenge posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC);
- Deterring strategic attacks against the United States, our allies, and our partners;
- Meeting the acute threat of a newly aggressive Russia;
- Tackling the dangers from Iran, North Korea, global terrorist groups, and more;
- Building a resilient joint force and defense ecosystem.
The NDS positions the U.S. military to meet our defense challenges through integrated deterrence, campaigning, and actions to build enduring advantages. The FY 2025 DoD budget request of $849.8 bn enables the Department to advance these goals by providing the resources to position our warfighters, allies, and partners for success. This budget continues to make the investments necessary to execute the NDS, but the FRA topline limitations required the Department to make tough but responsible choices. We made targeted reductions to programs that will not deliver capability to the force until the 2030s to preserve and enhance the Total Force’s ability to fight and win in the near term.
Integrated Deterrence
The FY 2025 budget request allows the DoD to invest in capabilities to maintain a ready, lethal, and combat-credible joint force, with a laser focus on the pacing challenge from the PRC, as well as the acute threat posed by Putin’s Russia. The budget makes critical investments to revitalize the defense industrial base, drive innovation, and take care of the Department’s personnel. The FY 2025 budget request includes $143.2 bn in research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E), and would also fund $167.5 bn for procurement. Combined, these investments will establish even stronger, nimbler, and more modern combat-credible forces across all domains.
Investments in platforms and systems across the air, sea, and land domains will increase the lethality of our Joint Force and enhance our ability to deter threats well into the future. So this budget request includes:
- $61.2bn for airpower to continue developing, modernizing, and procuring lethal air forces;
- $48.1bn for sea power, including new construction of six battle force fleet ships; and
- $13.0bn for land power, supporting the modernization of Army and Marine Corps combat equipment.
A safe, secure, effective, and credible nuclear deterrent remains the ultimate check on strategic attacks on our country and our allies. To sustain this level of deterrence, the FY 2025 budget requests $49.2 bn to modernize and recapitalize all three legs of the nuclear triad and operate our legacy systems even as we pursue arms control measures that enhance U.S. and allied security. For example, the budget requests:
- $9.9bn for the Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine;
- $5.3bn to continue development and procurement of the B-21 strategic bomber program; and
- $3.7bn to continue funding for the ground-based Sentinel program.
Our highest defense priority remains to deter attack against the United States. The PRC and Russia are fielding conventional long-range and hypersonic weapons that can threaten our allies, partners, and U.S. forces. Therefore, the FY 2025 budget requests $28.4bn to enhance U.S. missile-defense capabilities to defend the homeland, U.S. deployed forces, and our allies and partners against this growing missile threat.
Other critical investment highlights include:
- $9.8bn in long-range fires to hold adversary targets at risk from operationally relevant ranges and reduce risks to U.S. forces and assets;
- $33.7bn for vital space capabilities, resilient architectures, and enhanced space command and control to keep space safe for military, civilian, and commercial operations; and
- $14.5bn for cyberspace activities focused on three main portfolios covering cybersecurity, cyberspace operations, and cyber research and development.
Campaigning
The second way we advance the NDS is through campaigning, or well-planned and carefully sequenced exercises and initiatives to advance our defense priorities. Campaigning starts with our strategic readiness and our ability to build, maintain, and balance warfighting forces, capabilities, and competitive advantages to achieve our strategic objectives. The Department’s FY 2025 budget request therefore prioritizes the readiness of our joint force, investing $147.5bn to build and maintain our warfighting forces and capabilities. The budget request is designed to maintain our current levels of readiness while modernizing to meet future challenges. The Department’s strategic-readiness framework keeps our eyes on the horizon, carefully balancing today’s urgent and competing demands with preparing to prevail in long-term strategic competition.
The FY 2025 budget request includes critical investments to strengthen deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, including ballistic missile-defense activities in support of Guam; expanded security cooperation with our valued allies and partners; increased investments in exercises, training, and experimentation activities; cyber operations technology support; the fielding of uncrewed and autonomous systems that can operate in all domains; and other innovative technologies.
The outcome of Putin’s cruel and unprovoked war of choice against Ukraine will define global security for decades to come, and we remain determined to meet the moment. The FY 2025 budget request also funds our bedrock commitment to NATO, the indispensable defensive alliance that remains the foundation of transatlantic security, and includes $4.2bn to support investments, activities, and operations within Europe to deter Russian aggression against our allies and partners, including:
- $9.9bn for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative;
- $2.9bn for the European Deterrence Initiative;
- $625.6m in NATO Military Contribution;
- $434m for the NATO Security Investment Program; and
- $300m to fund the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.
Building Enduring Advantages
The Department’s people – the Total Force – are its most valuable asset and we have made significant investments to take care of our people. In particular. DoD supports its outstanding all-volunteer force and their families by continuously working to strengthen economic security and improve quality of life. Critical investments in our people include:
- A 4.5 percent pay increase for Service members and annual rate increases for both housing and subsistence allowances;
- $245.3m for a proposed substantial increase to the Income Eligibility Threshold for Basic Needs Allowance, an allowance designed to provide extra support to Service members and families who qualify;
- More than $120m in additional funding for commissaries to provide our Service members with food savings of over 25 percent compared to the local marketplace;
- $2.0bn to support family housing to provide safe, high-quality residences for Service members and their families;
- $1.1bn in unaccompanied housing or barracks construction;
- $547m to prevent suicide in the military, including $261m to implement the approved recommendations from the Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee; and
- $1.2bn to prevent sexual assault and other harmful behaviors, including $651m for the continued implementation of the recommendations by the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military and funding for the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Education and Training Center of Excellence.
Another Department priority is investing in our technological advantage to maintain global readiness for decades to come. The Department’s approach, which was codified in the National Defense Science and Technology Strategy, prioritizes three strategic lines of effort: focus on the Joint Mission; create and field capabilities at speed and scale; and strengthen the foundations of research and development. The FY 2025 budget request of $143.2bn in Research, Development, Test &Evaluation (RDT&E), enables us to maintain our commitment to innovation and modernization with investments including:
- $17.2bn in science and technology;
- $1.8bn in artificial intelligence;
- $1.4bn in Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control to deliver information advantage at the speed of relevance across all domains and partners;
- $450m for the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve to help more swiftly field new capabilities;
- $144m to support the Office of Strategic Capital, including $132.6m in RDT&E funding, which Secretary Austin established to enable the Department to attract and scale private capital in our most critical component-level supply chain technologies; and
- Resources for the Department-wide Replicator Initiative to accelerate the delivery of innovative capabilities to warfighters at speed and scale.
In addition, the Department is focused on manufacturing and production challenges, with continued investment in capabilities supporting a modern, technology-enabled industrial base. We also seek to make supply chains more resilient.
The recently released National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS) outlines four priorities for achieving a 21st-century defense industrial base: resilient supply chains, workforce readiness, flexible acquisition, and economic deterrence. Aligning our ongoing industrial-base efforts with the NDIS priorities will enable better coordination among programs and help us more swiftly identify opportunities for investments or policy modifications. The Department will continue to leverage authorities provided by Congress to deliver critical munitions affordably, while bolstering our inventories and providing a more predictable demand signal to industry. The FY 2025 budget request includes:
- $29.8bn for munitions, including both conventional ammunition and Precision Guided Munitions;
- $4.0bn in investments in the submarine industrial base, a historic investment in supplier and workforce development as well as infrastructure expansion and technological advances; and
- $2.5bn for microelectronics to reduce gaps in the advanced packaging ecosystem.
The FY 2025 budget continues to build on prior investments by including $19.8bn to sustain, restore, and modernize our facilities, as well as $17.5bn in construction and family housing programs. These efforts support our people, enhance our deterrence, and improve our critical infrastructure. Those investments include:
- $8.7bn in facilities supporting readiness improvements;
- $2.5bn in projects advancing the European Deterrence Initiative, the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, and the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent program;
- $2.0bn in critical naval-infrastructure improvements;
- $2.3bn to support the construction of other new quality-of-life facilities including barracks, dormitories, child development centers and youth centers, medical clinics, and schools.
As always, the Department is committed to being a responsible steward of hard-earned taxpayer funds — and committed to better performance across the defense enterprise. The FY 2025 Defense Budget includes $1.3bn in support of the DoD audit. This includes funding for audit services, support, remediation and financial systems. The Department has taken significant steps to improve our systems, modernize our enterprise, and attract and retain the best possible talent. We must continue to align our resources with our evolving defense needs. That will ensure that we can secure the right capabilities to build enduring advantages over our global competitors — and work toward a safer America in a more stable, open, and prosperous world.
The FY 2025 Defense Budget positions the Department to support its people and its allies and partners during this decisive decade — and to meet the defense challenges that our republic faces today and will face far into the future.
The entire budget proposal and additional materials are available at: https://comptroller.defense.gov/Budget-Materials/Budget2025/(Source: U.S. DoD)
11 Mar 24. DOD’s 2025 Budget Request Provides 4.5% Raise for Service Members. The Defense Department today laid out details of its $849.8bn budget request, which is expected to fund operations during fiscal year 2025.
Integrated deterrence and campaigning are big parts of the fiscal 2025 budget request. Another focus is building upon the U.S. military’s enduring advantages, including its most important advantage: its people.
“Our FY 25 budget request also upholds our commitment to our people, the service members, military families and civilians who work tirelessly to defend this nation day in and day out,” said Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks during a briefing today at the Pentagon. “Our success in defending the nation and maintaining readiness is inextricably linked to their success.”
This budget request, Hicks said, includes a strong focus on the economic stability of service members, military families and civilians, as well as on military family support.
“The budget funds must-pay items related to quality of life and quality of service, such as a 4.5% pay raise for our service members that builds on raises for the past three years in a row, including last year’s 5.2% pay raise,” she said.
Going beyond base pay, Hicks said, this latest request increases the number of child development centers, for instance, and also increases the number of providers in those child development centers.
Also, of concern is where service members and their families live, she said, including ships and barracks and creating healthy and resilient communities.
“That’s why the must-pay items in this budget also include basic housing allowance increases; facility investments in safe, quality family housing to enhance deterrence and improve critical operational infrastructure; making health care, healthy food and child care more accessible — including increasing pay for child care providers; and building a safer workplace — including efforts to combat sexual assault and to prevent suicide and eliminate barriers to care.”
All of those things, she said, are “must-haves,” which allow service members to focus on the mission of defending the nation.
Another enduring advantage is the U.S. defense industrial base — the collection of tens of thousands of private sector companies that provide services and equipment to the Defense Department. The need to build up the industrial base has been one of the big lessons from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it’s a focus of the FY 2025 budget request.
“Other key investments focus on strengthening our munitions and defense industrial base and improving the resilience of our supply chains so that we can deliver what our warfighters need when they need it,” Hicks said.
The FY 2025 request, for instance, makes “a historic investment” in the submarine industrial base to increase production and reduce backlogs, Hicks said.
Defending the nation includes having the best equipment and being trained and ready to use that equipment to both deter conflict and ensure readiness to defend, if need be.
This latest budget request also asks for $167bn for procurement; $143bn for research, development, testing and evaluation; and $339bn for operations and maintenance — which includes the training activities that keep service members ready for a war fight.
Integrated deterrence is a centerpiece of the 2022 National Defense Strategy, which was used to develop the FY 2025 budget request.
“For integrated deterrence, the FY 2025 budget requests funds critical to investments in our national nuclear enterprise and missile defense, along with space capabilities, which will allow the joint force to address key modernization priorities,” said Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Christopher Grady.
The FY 2025 request also continues to invest in ways to enable the department to strengthen cyberspace and long-range fire capabilities, Grady said.
This request, for instance, puts nearly $50bn towards nuclear modernization, including both the Columbia-class submarine and the B-21 bomber. Over $28bn is aimed at missile defeat and defense and more than $33bn is directed at space capabilities.
“To support campaigning, the department is investing in readiness initiatives for operations, training and maintenance, while also prioritizing exercises and experimentation that will allow the joint force to support our critical theaters, including Indo-Pacom and Europe.”
In campaigning, the FY 2025 budget directs nearly $10bn at the Pacific Deterrence Initiative — and including for the defense of Guam — and $3.9bn for the European Deterrence Initiative, to include support to NATO.
“We must continue to adapt, advance and innovate at speed and at scale across all domains, prioritizing China as the pacing challenge and Russia as an acute threat,” Grady said. “Our strategy-driven budget does exactly that. It recognizes the need to invest in key areas to translate the National Defense Strategy, the National Military Strategy and the Joint Warfighting Concept into operational capabilities required to deter our strategic competitors.”
Budget Challenges
While the budget request was announced today, the overall budgeting process remains in a state of flux. At the same time the FY 2025 request is being presented to Congress, Congress continues to wrestle with the fiscal 2024 budget request and the supplemental budget to fund Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and more.
The fiscal 2024 budget should have gone into effect on Oct. 1, 2023, but DOD has been funded under a continuing resolution since that date. A continuing resolution continues funding for departments at the level of the previous appropriations act. So, DOD is operating under the fiscal 2023 funding level. If there is no appropriation act and no continuing resolution, the government must shut down, something that has happened three times in the last decade.
Spotlight: FY 2024 Defense Budget
The fiscal 2025 request is also affected by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. That law limits discretionary spending for defense and nondefense programs in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling. This is why, for example, the FY 2025 pay raise for civilians — set at 2% — does not match that of service members, which is at 4.5%. It is also why the defense request does not keep up with inflation. The $850bn request is a 1% increase in spending, but inflation rose at about 3%. (Source: U.S. DoD)
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