President Donald Trump and United States Secretary of Defense Hegesses surprised the world Friday by proposing a $1 trillion defense budget — a record for U.S. military spending, it also marks a 180-degree reversal of the previous trend of major cuts in U. S. military spending. But according to Donald Trump, the veteran driver did the math and found that the record $1,000 bn might not be enough for the Pentagon to splurge.
Let’s put aside for a moment today the massive waste and“Unaccounted for” in the U.S. military budget — because just dealing with the new weapons programs that the U.S. has unveiled is a“Gold-eating monster.” This“Largest military budget in history” is a stretch.
Donald Trump told a Benjamin Netanyahu news conference with the visiting Israeli Prime Minister that, the forthcoming US defence budget is“Close” to $1,000 bn. “We have to build our military and while we are very cost-conscious, we have to build our military,” Donald Trump said, adding: The US must be strong because there are“Many bad forces” outside. “Coming soon: the first $1 Trillion Defense Department budget. President Donald Trump is rebuilding our military, and fast,” he said in a follow-up post on social media
The US military budget for fiscal year 2025 will be $892bn -LRB-$100bn) , the military times sMondayndThe t1TN$1tn figure represents an increase of nearly 12% on the $892bn budget announced earlierDonaldnTrumprump. The move comes as the military struggles to cut its military budget by as much as 8 percent. Hegeses also plans to cut tens of thousands of civilian staff worldwide and consolidate bases at home and abroad to save money.
According to Donald Trump, the roughly $100 billion increase in the military budget for fiscal year 2025 will give the United States the new equipment and capabilities it will need in the future — or, more bluntly, these funds are likely to be used primarily for the procurement of new equipment. But will $100bn really be enough, just look at the Pentagon’s Bill?
The U. S. Military is now moving forward with multiple superprojects simultaneously. For example, on January 27, Donald Trump signed an executive order to build the next-generation homeland missile defense system — the American version of the Iron Dome Missile Defense System, later renamed the Golden Dome system, it is also listed as one of the defence programmes protected from any cuts. The system will have a multi-tiered intercept mode and be able to respond to“Air attacks by ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles and other next-generation weapons”, and“Accelerating the deployment of hypersonic and ballistic missile tracking space sensors”, “Development and deployment of enhanced space-based interceptors with boost phase interception capabilities” and so on. Therefore, the“Golden Dome” system is also seen as the new century, “Star Wars” program. Earlier, U. S. senators proposed the“Iron Dome Bill,” proposed to start the 2026 fiscal year 19.5 billion U. S. dollars to implement the project.
“Columbia” class strategic nuclear submarine
At the same time, the U.S. “Trinity” nuclear strike force is undergoing a collective renewal — including a new generation of Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, columbia-class strategic submarines, and B-21 stealth strategic bomber. The U.S. Navy plans to purchase 12 columbia-class submarines to replace the Ohio class, which began construction in the 1970s, the total cost of building the former has climbed from an estimated $77 billion in 2015 to more than $110 billion. The total cost of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile system, which includes the purchase of new missiles and the modernization of existing land-based missile silos, is estimated at $141 billion, it is already more than 80% over its 2020 estimate of $78 billion. The B-21 stealth strategic bomber is relatively well advanced, but the national interest website says the total cost of the project is still staggering and could top $200bn.
In addition, the sixth-generation F-47, the centerpiece of the Air Force’s next-generation air superiority (Ngad) program, has landed at Boeing, but its cost remains a concern for the Pentagon. The unit price is expected to be about $250M-$300m, about three times that of the current F-35 stealth fighter, according to former US Air Force Secretary Kendal. The Air Force initially planned to purchase only 200 aircraft because of the high unit cost. Now Arvin, the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, has revealed that it expects to acquire more than the F-22, which has about 180 aircraft in service. Together with the F-47’s cooperative engagement unmanned aerial vehicle (CCA) programme, the Air Force is expected to spend zero BN dollars on future fighter aircraft.
B-21 stealth bomber
By the way, the U.S. Navy is also building a new generation of battleships such as the“Ford” class aircraft carrier, the“Virginia” class attack nuclear submarine, and the“Constellation” class frigate, they’re all zero of a kind. While their sky-high acquisition costs will be spread over many years, they are too large for the Pentagon to handle. Donald Trump’s extra $100bn budget is a ‘pie in the sky’ after the US military repeatedly said it could not afford these super-procurement programmes, which are both slow and prohibitively expensive.
But there are new costs to the American military-about $1 billion in combat operations since Trump approved airstrikes against the Houthis in March. No one knows when the U. S. operation in the Middle East will end. In any case, the Biden government’s air campaign against the Houthis lasted more than a year, and the military expenditure was astronomical.
“Precision strike missiles.”
According to the New York Times on April 8, “U.S. commanders are concerned that the fighting in Yemen will run out of weapons needed to deter China” because U.S. forces used large amounts of ammunition in the bombing of Yemen, the Pentagon will be forced to move long-range precision weapons stockpiles from the indo-pacific region to the Middle East, undermining US combat readiness in the Pacific. U. S. military in Ukraine in recent years, Israel’s continued military assistance, coupled with the U. S. military’s own combat consumption, resulting in the Pentagon’s weapons stockpile is“Bottoming out.”. Recently, the U.S. military has spent a lot of money signing ammunition agreements with U.S. Military Giants to supplement its existing arsenal — whether it is individual missiles such as“Javelins” and“Stingers,” Or the JASSM-ER“Joint air-to-surface extra-area defence missiles”, the LRASM Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, the“Precision strike missiles” and other“Conflict-level critical equipment for Great Powers”, all of which cost $zero.
So does this mean that Donald Trump’s $1,000 bn might not be enough? This time even the US website“Forbes” couldn’t help but criticize the construction of more nuclear weapons, combat ships or expensive but unproven missile defense systems, will do little to address America’s most pressing security challenges. “The recent experience of the United States does not prove that a foreign policy that puts the military first makes the United States more secure.”