$ 740.5 billion! U.S. defense budget draft for fiscal year 2021 unveiled
US President Trump has recently submitted to Congress a draft defense budget for the fiscal year 2021. According to the draft, the US defense budget for fiscal year 2021 is $ 740.5 billion, an increase of 0.3% over fiscal year 2020. After the draft was announced, US Secretary of Defense Esper declared: "Trump and Congress attach great importance to this. The continued growth of the defense budget over the past three years has enabled the U.S. military to reverse the landslide situation while ensuring that land, sea, air, and space and Deep integration and development of cyber information space. "
In response, Zhu Qichao, director of the National Institute of Security and Military Strategy and director of the National Institute of Security and Military Strategy at the National University of Defense Technology and a research think tank for national defense science and technology strategy, told the reporter of Science and Technology Daily: The "strategic-driven budget" formed by the various new versions of the strategy, but it continues the budget version of the "poor soldiers and military forces" of the US military for many years. "
Reflects the focus of U.S. defense forces in the future
Public opinion generally believes that the budget document submitted by Trump reflects the focus of US military strategy, military technology and weapons and equipment in the next fiscal year.
Zhu Qichao introduced: "From the perspective of budget distribution, the U.S. military has announced budget details for different 'combat areas' this time."
Among them, the "onshore combat area" budget is 13 billion U.S. dollars, including the purchase of 4,247 joint light tactical vehicles, 72 amphibious combat vehicles, 32 multi-purpose armored vehicles, etc .; Columbia-class ballistic missile nuclear submarine, a Virginia-class attack nuclear submarine, two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, a frigate, and the construction of a Ford-class aircraft carrier (CVN-78); "air operations field" A budget of $ 56.9 billion, focusing on the procurement of 79 F-35 fighters, 15 KC-46 tankers, 24 F / A-18E / F fighters, 52 AH-64E attack helicopters and 12 F-15EX fighters; " The "space confrontation field" budget is US $ 18 billion, of which the space army budget is US $ 15.4 billion; the "cyberspace field" budget is US $ 9.8 billion, of which the cyber security budget is US $ 5.4 billion and the cyber space operations budget is US $ 3.8 billion. In addition, the nuclear force budget is US $ 28.9 billion, the missile defense budget is US $ 20.3 billion, and the weapon ammunition budget is US $ 21.3 billion.
The U.S. Department of Defense also plans to provide the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency with $ 3.57 billion in fiscal 2021 for conducting demonstration demonstration studies of a variety of new weapons, including multi-target air-to-air weapons, close-range support missiles, and countermeasures in the environment. Communications support projects, anti-laser weapons projects, dynamic airspace control projects, new electronic warfare system projects, and port defense projects using consumable unmanned underwater vehicles to counter mines. The budget for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is more than 3% higher than in fiscal 2020.
"According to the explanation made by the US Department of Defense, the draft budget will continue to implement the new versions of the" Defense Strategy "," Nuclear Posture Assessment Report "," Missile Defense Assessment Report ", and" Indo-Pacific Strategy Report "issued by the Trump Administration in recent years. Requirements, focus on future 'high-end operations' needs, and make certain adjustments to resources and funding priorities. Specific measures include continuously improving the state of military readiness and modernization to ensure that the U.S. military is more lethal; strengthen military cooperation with allies and enhance collaborative combat capabilities ; Deepen the reform of the US Department of Defense, further clarify the positioning of duties; and do a good job of supporting soldiers and their dependents. "Zhu Qichao said.
Some traditional services have to be "tailored"
The reporter from Science and Technology Daily noted that according to the draft, although the US defense budget for fiscal year 2021 has increased compared to fiscal year 2020, it has been "unfair" in its distribution, which has led to some traditional services having to be "tailored."
For example, the U.S. Navy can only build 8 new ships instead of the 12 previously planned due to a reduction in the budget compared to the 2020 fiscal year. B-1 bombers, 44 A-10 attack aircraft, 24 "Global Hawk" unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, etc. At the same time, the United States also abandoned the "supersonic conventional strike weapons" project.
However, Zhu Qichao pointed out: "The budget for FY2021 includes the largest research, development, test, and appraisal budget in the history of the U.S. military, reaching 106.6 billion U.S. dollars, and focusing on increasing investment in emerging technologies to significantly enhance high-end operations. Capabilities to significantly enhance the relative advantage of the US military against evenly matched adversaries. These emerging technologies are referred to by the US military as 'advanced enabling technologies' and include hypersonic, artificial intelligence, 5G / microelectronics, and autonomous platforms. "
In terms of hypersonic speed, the U.S. military's budget for fiscal year 2021 was as high as US $ 3.2 billion, which was 23% higher than the application of US $ 2.6 billion in fiscal year 2020 filed last year, reaching a record high. Prior to this, the total amount of hypersonic budget applications for the U.S. military in FY 2020 has increased by 47% compared to the FY 2019 approval.
"It can be seen that under the pressure of Russia's hypersonic weapons, various services of the U.S. military intend to accelerate the development of hypersonic cruise missiles, hypersonic ballistic missiles and hypersonic gliding missiles and counter the development of hypersonic weapons." Zhu Qichao said.
In terms of artificial intelligence, the US Department of Defense plans to spend $ 841 million, an increase of 8% over last year's budget. The U.S. Department of Defense's artificial intelligence investment will focus on two areas, namely to support the United States Department of Defense's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to rapidly acquire advanced artificial intelligence technology and to support the "Maven" project previously launched by the United States Department of Defense, focusing on the use of advanced artificial intelligence. Algorithms identify objects in drone video. According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. military's overall budget for artificial intelligence and autonomous technology exceeds US $ 2.5 billion, with the aim of increasing "speed and lethality in a competitive environment."
In the area of 5G / microelectronics development, the US Department of Defense plans to invest US $ 1.5 billion, focusing on the development of technologies such as virtual / augmented reality, intelligent warehouses, and dynamic spectrum sharing, and rapidly turning them to military applications. In addition, the US military has also focused on high-performance computing, quantum computing, and directed energy.
Lack of rigorous assessment of security threats
"In this draft defense budget, the budget for the modernization of nuclear power accounts for a large proportion, which reflects the US Department of Defense's ambition to build a strong nuclear force." Zhu Qichao said.
On the day the U.S. Department of Defense released its budget requirements for fiscal year 2021, President Trump reiterated that the United States will build the world's number one nuclear force.
According to the "Nuclear Posture Assessment Report 2018" of the United States, the United States will no longer reduce nuclear weapons, but instead will develop more intensive upgrades to existing nuclear arsenals while developing new nuclear weapons. It can be said that the investment in the field of nuclear weapons in the US fiscal year 2021 is guided by the "2018 Nuclear Posture Assessment Report". Zhu Qichao pointed out: "The Trump administration has changed the Obama administration's prudent nuclear armament policy, significantly enhanced the status of nuclear weapons in military strategy, accelerated the pace of nuclear weapons replacement, and has begun to deploy sea-based low-equivalent tactical nuclear weapons, which may trigger the National concerns about a new nuclear arms race. "
Another noticeable point in the draft defense budget for FY2021 is that the U.S. Space Force development budget reached $ 15.4 billion, an increase of nearly $ 15.3 billion over the previous fiscal year. The main reason is that the United States Department of Defense has officially launched the establishment of the Space Army, so the relevant budget items originally belonging to the Air Force were assigned to the Space Army. The largest proportion of these budgets is the budget for the construction of new types of missile early warning satellites and other weapons and equipment, which alone amounts to $ 2.5 billion.
Zhu Qichao introduced that the new missile early warning satellite project is likely to continue the development and launch of the fifth and sixth satellites based on the four "space-based infrared systems" geostationary orbit satellites launched earlier, and may develop other satellites Satellite constellations share intelligence information processing systems, thereby improving global missile warning, intelligence information fusion, command and control capabilities, and possibly enhancing early warning and interception capabilities for hypersonic weapons.
"Overall, this draft balances the needs of the various services for the ever-expanding funding resources. Even so, the draft budget has also triggered widespread discussion and controversy in the United States." Zhu Qichao pointed out that the United States Smith, chairman of the Congressional Military Committee and a Democrat, criticized that "defense spending is already quite large, but national resources are limited, and the Ministry of National Defense's current defense strategy is not commensurate with limited resources." And Anthony Cozman, a former adviser to the US Department of Defense, said that during the drafting of the budget, almost all the results of planning, planning and budgeting that have been effective in the past have been abandoned, and evolved into a typical "input-driven budget." The budget focuses on meeting the expenditure targets of each service without a rigorous net assessment of security threats. This budget reflects a series of dysfunctional "puppet" decisions.
Our reporter Zhang Qiang