{"id":64786,"date":"2023-03-20T19:19:18","date_gmt":"2023-03-20T19:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2023\/03\/20\/superlatives-in-the-fy24-budget-request-wont-cut-it-for-us-forces\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:37:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:37:06","slug":"superlatives-in-the-fy24-budget-request-wont-cut-it-for-us-forces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2023\/03\/20\/superlatives-in-the-fy24-budget-request-wont-cut-it-for-us-forces\/","title":{"rendered":"Superlatives in the FY24 budget request won\u2019t cut it for US forces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When it comes to the U.S. military\u2019s budget requests<\/a>, the promise of more \u2014 dollars, people and capital assets \u2014 in the distant future is always present. But the White House is doing the armed forces no favors<\/a> by continuously submitting late budgets <\/a>to Congress, then demanding they get their funding on time at the start of the fiscal year in just over six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nor is the administration helping those in uniform by sending over requests well below inflation<\/a> alongside pay raises significantly above the request. This causes internal imbalances in defense spending and a robbing of other accounts to cover the cost of professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress will clearly have to bail out the military again and pay the full costs of inflation<\/a> while confronting head-on the \u201cTerrible \u201920s<\/a>\u201d tri-service modernization crunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its rollout briefing<\/a>, Pentagon leaders touted this year\u2019s request in superlatives: It has the largest procurement budget ever, the largest research and development budget in history, and the most money ever dedicated to space. In a statement accompanying the request, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin called it<\/a> \u201cthe most strategy-driven request we\u2019ve ever produced from the Department of Defense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But slogans are not enough as the strategy-resource mismatch widens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Superlatives can be a good and bad thing. For instance, even though the fiscal 2024 budget request to buy equipment is the largest, it simply had to grow to even have a chance of meeting the pace of elevated inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other cases, the superlatives that characterize this budget are helpful, such as that which pertains to munitions. The Pentagon request, as Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks has noted<\/a>, \u201cprocures the maximum amount of munitions that are most relevant for deterring and, if necessary, prevailing over aggression in the Indo-Pacific<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking a page out of Ukraine\u2019s book<\/a>, the Pentagon is looking to buy a lot of things that go boom<\/a>. It\u2019s smartly embracing multiyear procurement<\/a> for munitions across the services. Next year the Pentagon will aim to secure such contracts as the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile\u2014Extended Range, the Standard Missile-6 and the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile. The Defense Department is also hoping to house the planned multiyear contracts for these munitions under what it\u2019s calling a \u201cLarge Lot Procurement\u201d program that will apparently \u201cimprove the efficiency of missile procurement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t