Pentagon says war in Ukraine ‘too fluid’ to include additional funding in 2024 budget
The US Pentagon building in Washington from an aerial view.
The Pentagon’s budget request for 2024 of $842 billion does not include additional funding for Ukraine in the war against Russia because of the unpredictability of the duration of the conflict, officials said while reporting details of the request.
The Pentagon’s fiscal year 2024 budget request includes $300 million for the Ukraine Defense Assistance Initiative, which will “always be in the budget,” a senior defense official told reporters Friday.
“If this is still a problem [2024]We expect to manage it through contingencies, contingency funds or supplementary funds, which is how every function has been managed continuously in the government for about 50 years,” the official said. “It is no different in this case. Setting a number now to predict what the situation will be in 2024 is very fluid.
The lack of additional funding “doesn’t matter to us in any way,” the official insisted.
A little more context: Since Russia’s invasion a year ago, the United States has given Ukraine about $30 billion in aid. The White House budget released last week includes $6 billion for the Pentagon and the State Department for Ukraine and other European allies.
While the Pentagon’s budget request does not include additional funding specifically for Ukraine, it does include a roughly $6 billion increase in arms funding that is “more or less measured by information and what’s happening on the ground in Ukraine. It gives Ukraine,” according to the official, “to adapt capabilities to the current threat” in Europe. Invests nearly $5 billion.
But in the new budget request, the official noted that the focus on weapons would be “more attention to the broader strategy for high-level warfare.”
“They are not landmines,” the official said. “You’ll see cruise missiles, stationary missiles, AMRAAMs.”
In fact, included in the multi-year contract applications are the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) and the Joint Extended-Range Air-To. -Surface Missile (JASSM-ER).
Asked why the Pentagon couldn’t get similar contracts for the Patriot missile system and the guided multiple launch rocket (GMLR) system — much needed in Ukraine — the official said getting it was “much harder than it looks.” Multi-year contract.
The massive budget arms request includes $5.6 billion for weapons, $17.3 billion for tactical missiles, $7.3 billion for strategic missiles and $600 million for technology development. That includes more than $1 billion for the munitions industrial base in an effort to “modernize and expand capacity” today.
The budget request released Monday prioritizes China as America’s “key momentum challenge” and allocates more than $9 billion to invest in the construction and construction of “new warning missiles” in the Pacific, as well as training and communications. stakeholders in the region.
