{"id":64480,"date":"2023-03-13T16:29:31","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T16:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2023\/03\/13\/pentagon-budget-aims-to-max-munitions-production-make-multiyear-buys\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:40:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:40:44","slug":"pentagon-budget-aims-to-max-munitions-production-make-multiyear-buys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2023\/03\/13\/pentagon-budget-aims-to-max-munitions-production-make-multiyear-buys\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon budget aims to max munitions production, make multiyear buys"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 The Pentagon aims to rev up the munitions industrial base<\/a> and max out production lines for several top priority missiles, according to the budget unveiled Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an eye on Russia<\/a> and China<\/a>, the Pentagon in fiscal 2024 would spend $30.6 billion for missiles and munitions \u2015 12% more than last year and 50% more than five years ago, when the U.S. was still fighting the Islamic State and Taliban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon budget would also break new ground by using multiyear procurement authorities generally reserved for ships and aircraft to buy munitions and expand production capacity over several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Monday\u2019s budget rollout, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks<\/a> and Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Adm. Christopher Grady<\/a> did not answer directly whether the Pentagon, like the NATO alliance, is raising stockpile targets due to the war in Ukraine. The move was aimed at deterring China and ensuring the health of the U.S. defense industrial base, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis latest budget expands production capacity even more, and procures the maximum amount of munitions that are most relevant for deterring and, if necessary, prevailing over aggression in the Indo-Pacific,\u201d said Hicks, adding that one-third of the munitions budget request is for long-range fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord<\/a> said the munitions request was \u201cUkraine informed, even if not Ukraine specific.\u201d To replenish U.S. stockpiles depleted by the war in Ukraine, Pentagon officials said they will rely on supplemental appropriations from Congress, which granted the Pentagon $35.7 billion for FY23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are not the kind of missiles that are key to the Ukraine fight, they are key to Indo-Pacific deterrence,\u201d McCord said. \u201cWhat [Hicks] has been pushing us to do is to think about lessons we\u2019re learning today and apply them to future scenarios, think about what would I have done four years ago if I had a crystal ball, to think about things that might be coming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon\u2019s $170 billion procurement budget request \u2015 touted as the largest ever \u2015 would use a new \u201clarge lot procurement pilot\u201d strategy to maximize production capacity for several munitions used across the services: Lockheed Martin\u2019s Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended Range (JASSM-ER) and Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) \u2015 and the Raytheon Technologies-made RIM-174 Standard Missile (SM-6), AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AAMRAM).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though not in the pilot program, the Pentagon is also using multiyear contracting to buy roughly 103 Naval Strike Missiles at $250 million. The Marine Corps\u2019 new, low-signature Marine Littoral Regiments and their Navy\/Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System are slated for 90 of the ground-based missiles, which Raytheon manufactures.<\/p>\n\n\n\t