The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) transits the South China Sea. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication 3rd Class Thaddeus Berry)
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s combatant command primarily charged with countering China in the Indo-Pacific says it needs approximately $15.3 billion dollars in fiscal 2024 to accomplish all of its goals, almost $4 billion more than Congress approved for last fiscal year.
The $15.3 billion figure comes from a special congressionally mandated report, obtained by Breaking Defense, that allows US Indo-Pacific command to give an independent assessment of the budget it needs to achieve all of its strategic goals in the region that has rapidly become the Pentagon’s top priority following two decades of conflict in the Middle East.
The combatant command’s new request is higher than what the administration requested last year ($6.1 billion) and what Congress eventually authorized ($11.5 billion), according to POLITICO, which first reported on this year’s document. Details of the White House’s new FY24 budget request for INDOPACOM have not been made public yet. While not an apples-to-apple comparison, the Biden administration’s just released budget request includes $9.1 billion in funding for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, effectively a special counter-China fund for the region.
The document projects the combatant command would seek approximately $71 billion spread across FY24 to FY28. The request for this year includes $1.6 billion to fund a variety of programs that collectively contribute to the defense of Guam and Hawaii.
One of the biggest single items on the list is a $5.3 billion request for “Persistent Battlespace Awareness,” which includes funding for the next generation of Overhead Persistent Infrared program, a network of satellites focused on missile warning, tracking and defense, as well as a network of space-based sensors “necessary to provide persistent and complete coverage of air, sea, and ground-launched missile threats.”
The request includes funding for a number of missile programs — roughly $2.8 billion — including the Maritime Strike Tomahawk, the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, Standard Missile-6, the Precision Strike Missile Increment 2 and the Marine Corps’ newest anti-ship weapon, nicknamed NMESIS, among others.
INDOPACOM seeks $2.2 billion for improving infrastructure as well as $696 million to “build defense and security capabilities, and cooperation of allies and partners.”
The request also includes $1.1 billion for a variety of training exercises and experiments, such as an “AI-enabled planning & wargaming” initiative dubbed “Stormbreaker.”
“Stormbreaker is an artificial intelligence enabled planning and war gaming capability that provides the Joint Force Commander with the ability to conduct multi-domain, operational-level wargaming using machine learning analytical tools,” according to the document.
Roughly $35 million is allotted for maintenance, logistics and the pre-positioning of equipment, including the defueling of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel storage facility in Hawaii, which last year came under intense scrutiny by lawmakers after local residents reported a fuel leak contaminated the water supply.