Joe Biden’s US$715 billion defence spending request to counter ‘top challenge’ from China
- The request ‘prioritises the need to counter the threat from China as the [Defence] Department’s top challenge’, according to a White House summary
- It included spending on ‘executable and responsible’ investments in the US Navy fleet and on ‘ongoing nuclear modernisation programmes’
The proposal was the latest signal from the new administration that it sees competition with China as an urgent priority.
“The discretionary request prioritises the need to counter the threat from China as the [Defence] Department’s top challenge,” a summary of the upcoming budget proposal released by the White House on Friday said.
Biden has not yet released a full, detailed list of his spending requests in the budget, but the 58-page summary included spending on “executable and responsible” investments in the US Navy fleet, on “ongoing nuclear modernisation programmes” and on “enhancing existing long-range strike capabilities”.
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It also listed the “development and testing of hypersonic strike capabilities”, along with investments in “breakthrough technologies that would drive innovation and underpin the development of next-generation defence capabilities”.