April. 10, 2024 (EIRNS)—Pentagon leaders were all over Capitol Hill yesterday, playing up the supposed threats from Russia and China to justify their budget demands. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. told the Senate Armed Services committee inn their opening statements that Pentgon’s 2025 $850 billion budget is still shaped with the military’s long-term strategic goal in mind—to ready forces and weapons for a potential future conflict with China, reported AP. About $100 billion of this year’s request is set aside for new space, nuclear weapons and cyber warfare systems the military says it must invest in now before Beijing’s capabilities surpass it.
At the same time, the leaders of the Department of the Air Force were testifying to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations General Chance Saltzman and U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General David Allvin claimed in a joint statement that Russia’s upgrade of its strategic weapons, especially the development of hypersonic missiles, puts at risk the U.S. security. “Russia continues to place a strong emphasis on modernizing strategic weapons that will allow it to hold the United States homeland at risk, particularly with hypersonic and other next-generation weapons. Russia is developing and deploying a range of counterspace systems including surface-launched, air-launched, and orbital anti-satellite weapons, laser weapons, electronic warfare systems, and cyber capabilities that can threaten military and dual-use space assets,” they said. They said the budget request for the Air Force and Space Force was driven by an “acute Russian threat.”
