Following the announcement that President Biden is requesting $813 billion for the 2023 defense budget;

William Davies, Associate Defense Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“This budget represents a 4.3% increase on the previous year, and prioritizes shipbuilding, space capabilities, missile warning systems and modernizing nuclear systems including submarine and strategic bombers. The spending increase is partially a reaction to the Ukraine crisis but will not address ongoing spending issues faced by the US armed forces.

“The budget would cover the production of nine new ships, including Virginia Class attack submarines and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers among others – though this would still result in a smaller fleet overall due to the decommissioning of a number of ships over the same period. Over half of the budget will go towards nuclear powered submarines and aircraft carriers.

“Nuclear modernization in the budget included a $3 billion increase in funding for the B-21 bomber, as well as a $5 billion increase for Columbia-class nuclear powered submarines. The first Columbia-class submarine is planned for delivery in 2031, but ongoing delays with the Block IV Virginia class submarine are delaying the ramp up in Columbia-class production.

“The budget includes $25.5 billion for the relatively new Space Force agency, a $5 billion increase over 2022. A significant part of this increased spending will be the development of new early warning satellites to detect ballistic and hypersonic missile launches. Officials also refer to increasing anti-satellite capabilities by China and Russia as the motivation for increasing funding of space systems, indicating that expanding defense is needed for existing and future satellite systems.

“The spending on missile defense is in large part allocated to combat the increasing threat from weapons including hypersonics, and $9.6 billion is requested for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). This funding would cover programs including the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) which is a Pentagon priority. Aside from developing new systems this budget will also allow for the upgrading of existing systems, as well as building up systems in Alaska to detect threats from the North. Missile defense systems are on a relatively tight timeline, with the HBTSS scheduled for prototype launches in 2023 and new missile defense scheduled for Guam by 2026, and it remains to be seen whether this funding can ensure these timelines are met.”