U.S. President Joe Biden has presented Congress with a defense budget of $886 billion, marking the largest peacetime budget, which focuses on the war in Ukraine and future conflicts. The budget includes a 5.2% pay increase for troops and the largest recorded allocations for research and development, following heightened demand for spending on munitions due to the Russian war on Ukraine.
Biden requested $842 billion for the U.S. Department of Defense (the Pentagon) and $44 billion for defense-related programs in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Energy, and other agencies. The total proposed budget for 2024 is approximately $28 billion more than last year's budget.
The 2024 budget features significant allocations for research and development benefiting the Pentagon, including $145 billion earmarked for developing new weapons such as hypersonic missiles that are launched in the upper atmosphere and can evade even advanced radar systems. Russia has utilized these missiles in Ukraine.
The Ukraine war has demonstrated to the U.S. military the need to produce larger quantities of certain types of munitions, explaining the ongoing contracts for weapons that may also be used in potential military conflicts with China.
