U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Tuesday the Pentagon would seek a $582.7 billion defense budget next year which its spending would be refocused to address five big challenges facing the U.S. military: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Islamic State, Reuters reported.
Speaking to the Economic Club of Washington, Carter said the budget is needed for the Pentagon to reshape its spending priorities in a new strategic environment marked by Russian assertiveness and the rise of Islamic State. He said the Pentagon’s funding request would be in line with last year’s congressional budget deal.
Carter said: “Today’s security environment is dramatically different than the one we’ve been engaged with for the last 25 years and it requires new ways of thinking and new ways of acting.”
He made the remarks a week ahead of the formal rollout of the administration’s 2017 budget. The Pentagon’s budget for the current fiscal year is $585 billion.
Carter said the Pentagon would a 50 percent increase over spending on the war with Islamic State. He seeks $7.5 billion for the war with the group in the 2017 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
He said the increase was critical because the United States has used so many smart bombs and laser-guided rockets against the militants in Iraq and Syria that it is running low on the weapons and needs to invest $1.8 billion for 45,000 more.