WASHINGTON (AP):
US military officials on yesterday called for spending tens of billions of dollars in the next budget year on drones, air defence systems and fighter jets that have been a key part of fighting the Iran war.
As part of President Donald Trump’s push to boost defence spending to US$1.5 trillion in the 2027 budget, the Pentagon wants to triple spending on drones and related technology to more than US$74 billion and invest over US$30 billion into more critical munitions, including missile interceptors, whose stockpiles have become critically low during the Iran war.
Military officials said the spending blueprint was developed before the conflict in the Middle East. They also did not discuss how much they will request in additional funds for the war, which would be on top of what the White House is seeking to boost defence spending in the next budget year.
“The overlap, you’ll see, is the request for munitions, which is something we always need,” Jules Hurst III, acting under secretary of defence and the Pentagon’s comptroller, told reporters at a briefing. “We always need to increase our magazine depth. But outside of that, there aren’t any operational costs in here from Iran.”
The missile interceptors whose numbers are under the most strain are the Patriot and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence, or THAAD, air defence systems. The THAAD system is designed for defeating medium-range ballistic missiles, while the Patriot system is for taking down short-range ballistic missiles and crewed aircraft. However, they both also were used to shoot down cheap Iranian drones.
The US$30 billion budget item also would aim to purchase long-range Precision Strike Missiles and Mid-Range Capability missile systems used by the US Army.
DRONE WARFARE
The budget proposal would allocate nearly US$54 billion for military drones and related technology, as well as US$21 billion for weapons systems designed to take down enemy drones.
Drones and other unmanned vehicles have emerged as a key weapon in the wars in Ukraine and Iran, and top Pentagon officials say the US must significantly increase its funding of both drones and counter-drone systems.
“Drone warfare is rapidly reshaping the modern battlefield,” Hurst said. “This budget is the largest investment in drone warfare and counter drone technology in US history.”
As part of the 2027 budget, the Pentagon also intends to grow the military by 44,500 troops, or more than two per cent, spend more than US$2 billion on operations on the US-Mexico border and make the largest shipbuilding request since 1962.
While officials said the budget was developed before operations began in Iran, it featured major jumps in many of the missiles that have been used in the conflict. One of the most dramatic increases was in the choice for the Navy to increase of its purchase of the Tomahawk cruise missile from 55 missiles last year to 785 in this year’s budget.
Major Generak Frank Verdugo, the Air Force’s budget chief, said the Air Force wants to invest US$600 million to develop “affordable” munitions as part of an effort to move away from “small numbers of exquisite weapons toward a future where we can overwhelm an adversary with sheer volume.”
The Navy said it would be buying 18 more warships using more than US$65 billion – a 46 per cent increase from the previous year.
However, the Trump-endorsed battleship that was announced to great fanfare last year is not in this year’s budget, according to the briefing. Instead, the Navy is planning to pay for the first battleship in next year’s budget.
The military’s spending proposal also lacked money for repairing US bases in the Middle East, which Hurst said would be part of a future request.
