Pentagon Puts Priority on Replacing Munitions in 2024 Budget

The Pentagon’s $170 billion procurement request for the new fiscal year focuses on replacing munitions supplied to Ukraine as well as well as weapons like long-range missiles, which would be necessary in a conflict with China, according to an internal budget document.

(Bloomberg) — The Pentagon’s $170 billion procurement request for the new fiscal year focuses on replacing munitions supplied to Ukraine as well as well as weapons like long-range missiles, which would be necessary in a conflict with China, according to an internal budget document.

The Defense Department will ask for $76.8 billion for the Navy and Marines, with $32.8 billion in new ship construction; $61 billion for the Air Force, which includes the US Space Force: and $24.4 billion for the Army, according to the official P-1 summary document obtained by Bloomberg News.

The companion R-1 research and development document requests $145 billion overall, with $46 billion to the Air Force, $27 billion to the Navy and $15.7 billion the Army. The documents are to be released Monday by the Pentagon as part of its detailed disclosure of the budget request for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Among the largest research and development recipients are $3.7 billion for the Northrop Grumman Corp.’s new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, $3 billion for B-21 bomber development and $2.3 billion for the “Next Generation Air Dominance” program designed to replace the F-22 fighter jet.

Highlights of the munitions requests include:

  • $951 million for 550 Joint Air-To-Surface Standoff Missiles made by Lockheed Martin Corp.
  • $928 million for 831 Navy/Air Force Amraam air-to-air missiles from Raytheon Technologies Corp.
  • $886 million to buy 5,016 GMLRS rockets from Lockheed Martin.
  • $639 million to buy 91 Navy Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles from Lockheed Martin
  • $400 million to buy a new version of the Stinger called M-Shorad
  • $308 million for 78 MK-48 advanced torpedoes from Lockheed Martin
  • $199 million to buy 541 Javelin anti-armor missiles made by Raytheon-Lockheed and lionized by Ukrainian forces for their lethal efficacy against Russian tanks
  • $179 million to buy from Lockheed Martin 28 additional Himars mobile rocket systems

Notable non-munitions procurement requests by the Army, Navy and Air Force include:

  • 91 AMPV Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicles built by BAE Systems Plc, which replaced the Army workhorse M113 personnel carrier
  • 48 Air Force F-35s built by Lockheed Martin Corp.
  • 42 AH-64E upgraded Apache attack helicopters built by Boeing Co.
  • 34 M1A2 tanks to be upgraded built by General Dynamics Corp.
  • 33 Mobile Protected Firepower light tanks built by General Dynamics
  • 24 Boeing Co. F-15EX fighters
  • 15 additional Boeing KC-46 refueling tankers
  • 10 National Security Space Launch missions for military satellites, which have pitted Elon Musk’s SpaceX against the Boeing-Lockheed Martin United Launch Alliance
  • 8 Navy Conventional Prompt Strike ship-launched hypersonic missiles built by Lockheed Martin
  • 7 MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopters built by Boeing, designed to guard US ICBM silos
  • Two Navy Constellation-class FFG frigates built by Fincantieri/Marinette Marine of Marinette, Wisconsin, up from one this year
  • Two Virginia-class submarines built by General Dynamics and Huntington Ingalls,
  • Two DDG-51 Arleigh Burke class destroyers built by General Dynamics and Huntington Ingalls

(Updates with list of major non-munitions requests.)

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