Austin, Milley defend weapons cuts in Biden’s defense budget
By: Joe Gould 17 hours ago
WASHINGTON ― Top Pentagon leaders defended President Joe Biden’s flat defense budget request to lawmakers on Thursday along with its “hard choices” to slash legacy weapons programs in favor of developing technologies as a hedge against China.
Two weeks after the Biden administration sent Congress a fiscal 2022 budget request that seeks $715 billion in Department of Defense funds, senators from both sides of the aisle pressed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley. The duo faced tense questions over plans to forgo a Navy destroyer, four amphibious warships, MQ-9 Reaper drones and to retire 42 A-10 aircraft, among other moves.
The Biden administration wants to cut weapons that can’t stand up to China and Russia or are too costly to sustain, the officials told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2021/06/10/austin-milley-defend-biden-defense-budgets-weapon-cuts-to-wary-lawmakers/
