The Biden administration’s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 asks for billions more dollars to boost its Indo-Pacific military command, enhance missile defense and strengthen regional economies, as part of a broader push to counter China’s more assertive role in the region.
(Bloomberg) — The Biden administration’s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 asks for billions more dollars to boost its Indo-Pacific military command, enhance missile defense and strengthen regional economies, as part of a broader push to counter China’s more assertive role in the region.
The White House is proposing $9.1 billion for Pentagon investments in the Indo-Pacific region as part of the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, up from a $6.1 billion request for the current year. In the end, Congress appropriated $11.5 billion for 2023, suggesting that the initiative will get more than it asked for this time too.
Separately, the Indo-Pacific Command spelled out this week in a congressionally mandated report categories of Pentagon spending where it would like increased funding. It listed $15.3 billion in recommendations, up from $9 billion it recommended last year.
The command wants to boost its arsenal for a potential China fight with underwater mines nicknamed Hammerhead and Quick Strike and ground-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles that could be fired by the Army and Marines against Chinese ships.
Its wish list includes billions of dollars for missile defense in Guam and Hawaii as well as broader missile-warning systems. Overall, the command recommended $86.8 billion in those areas to shore up US defenses and military presence in the region over the next four years. Last year’s four-year recommendation totaled $67 billion.
The emphasis on funneling more money to US military assets in the Indo-Pacific highlights just how much the Biden administration, like the Trump administration before it, wants to reorient its defense posture to respond to China’s own growing military and economic might.
The Biden administration is demonstrating that commitment with a pledge to sell Australia some of its Virginia-class submarines, part of a move to strengthen a US-UK-Australia alliance that will eventually see Canberra buy a fleet of submarines. President Joe Biden was set to unveil the agreement in a meeting with the prime ministers of Australia and the UK in San Diego on Monday.
Read more: Australia’s Nuclear Subs Will Use UK Design to Counter China
US intelligence chiefs told a House of Representatives hearing Thursday that China doesn’t want a military conflict over Taiwan but remains determined to bring the independently governed island under its control. The U.S. must not “underestimate the ambitions of the current Chinese leadership in that regard or their determination” to achieve reunification with Taiwan, Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns said.
The State Department, meanwhile, is seeking $2 billion to strengthen Indo-Pacific economies and further $2 billion to funnel toward strategic infrastructure projects — a move likely aimed at countering China’s long-running Belt and Road Initiative, which has built roads, ports and power plants from Pakistan to Sri Lanka.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made no secret of the intended target. He said it was a move to “out-compete the People’s Republic of China” and strengthen the US presence in the region.
Proposed Weapons
The Indo-Pacific Command recommends $172 million in continued development and procurement for the Hammerhead, a weapon it describes as “an offensive mining system” that would be delivered by a drone to “detect, classify and destroy submarines threats.” General Dynamics Corp. is developing a prototype.
The command also highlighted the potential to attack China’s surface vessels with Quickstrike air-launched sea mines developed by Boeing Co. that could hit water and seek out surface targets. The command recommends lawmakers shift $142 million into that program.
By sheer numbers, China has the world’s largest Navy, with 340 surface ships and submarines. It currently operates six Jin-class submarines carrying nuclear-tipped ICBMs, six nuclear-powered attack submarines and 44 diesel-powered attack subs. The US has fewer than 300 vessels.
(Updates with proposed weapons starting in fourth paragraph)
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