The D Brief: 2022 budget deets; Service shares largely unchanged; Russia’s latest hack; Iraqi militia drones; And just a bit more...
By Bradley Peniston and Jennifer Hlad
June 1, 2021 10:31 AM ET
2022 budget proposal would trade current arms for future ones: “The Biden administration is proposing cuts to the military’s ranks and arsenals in an effort to invest in a new generation of high-tech weapons to counter China,” Defense One’s Marcus Weisgerber reported Friday. “In a $715 billion spending plan sent to Congress Friday, the Biden administration proposes sidelining ships and hundreds of aircraft to pay for fast-flying hypersonic missiles and newer generation warships.”
A real decline. The request is $11 billion more than the $704 billion Congress enacted for the current fiscal year, which would mean a real decrease of 0.6 percent under 2 percent inflation, or 3 percent if inflation stays around 4 percent.
DepSecDef Kathleen Hicks: “This will provide the foundation for fielding a full range of needed capabilities such as hypersonic missiles, artificial intelligence, and 5G,” Hicks said. Cutting old weapons to pay for new ones is not unique to the Biden administration; the Trump administration used the same strategy in its fiscal 2021 budget proposal last year.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/06/the-d-brief-june-01-2021/174411/
