Pentagon's vast budget readies US for possible China confrontation, defence chiefs say

Preparing for war 'is extraordinarily expensive, but it’s not as expensive as fighting a war', top general says

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Mark Milley speaks at a news conference earlier this month. Reuters

The US military must prepare for a possible confrontation with China, the Pentagon's leaders said on Thursday, as they pushed Congress to approve the Defence Department's proposed record-breaking $842 billion budget.

The budget would be focused on modernising forces in Asia and around the world.

“This is a strategy-driven budget — and one driven by the seriousness of our strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China,” Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a House of Representatives committee hearing.

Pointing to increases in new technology, such as hypersonic weapons, Mr Austin said the budget proposes spending more than $9 billion — a 40 per cent increase over last year — to build up military capabilities in the Pacific and defend allies.

The hearing comes on the heels of Chinese leader Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow, amid concerns China will step up its support for Russian President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine and increasingly threaten the West.

China's actions, said Gen Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “are moving it down the path towards confrontation and potential conflict with its neighbours and possibly the United States”.

He said that deterring and preparing for war “is extraordinarily expensive, but it’s not as expensive as fighting a war”.

“This budget prevents war and prepares us to fight it if necessary,” he added.

America already spends more on defence than the next nine countries combined, and under President Joe Biden's proposal for fiscal year 2024, the Pentagon would get $842 billion — a $26 billion (3.2 per cent) increase from 2023's record-breaking defence budget.

The defence spending would also include $9.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, which is geared towards boosting Washington's regional competitiveness against an emboldened Beijing, and $37.7 billion for modernising US nuclear capabilities.

Gen Milley, who will retire later this year, said the US must continue to modernise its forces to ensure they will be ready to fight if needed.

Two decades of war in Iraq and Afghanistan eroded the military’s equipment and troop readiness, so the US has been working to replace weapons systems and give troops time to reset. And this has paid off, Gen Milley told Congress.

“Our operational readiness rates are higher now than they have been in many, many years,” he said.

More than 60 per cent of the active force is at the highest state of readiness at the moment and could be deployed to combat in less than 30 days, while 10 per cent could deploy within 96 hours, he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report