[Source/Observer Network, Mountain Cat]

On local time April 29th, the joint committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate proposed a new military spending bill text involving an additional $150 billion to be spent outside the regular Pentagon budget for the fiscal year 2025, to be used before the fiscal year 2029 as part of advancing the priorities of the Trump administration.

As an additional military expenditure, this bill plans to pass through the congressional legislative process using a special budget procedure called "reconciliation." According to documents on the U.S. House of Representatives official website, the plan covers several major expenditure directions. The "Defense Industry" website (Defence-Industry) briefly summarized these in its report, with the following parts: approximately $9 billion for military personnel living allowances, subsidies, and living infrastructure; approximately $3.4 billion for shipbuilding and strengthening the naval industrial base, including an additional $5.4 billion to build two "Arleigh Burke"-class destroyers and $4.6 billion to build one "Virginia"-class attack nuclear submarine;

In recent years, anxiety over shipbuilding in the United States has been growing day by day.

About $25 billion will be used for missile defense programs, with a focus on the research and development of the renamed "Golden Dome" homeland missile defense system. This includes $7.2 billion for the integration of space-based detection sensors and $5.6 billion for "significant investments" in exoatmospheric interception systems and hypersonic missile defense technologies.

The next $21 billion will be used to increase the production of various types of ammunition, including cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, air-to-air missiles, and anti-radiation missiles. A larger portion will be used to support the U.S. Navy's ammunition inventory and strengthen the industrial production bases for various standard missiles and "non-traditional" munitions;

Another $14 billion will be used to purchase small drones, "resilient navigation" technology, and other commercial technologies from military innovation departments, with $1.5 billion allocated for the development of "cost-effective" cruise missiles (with a $500 million share for export sales).

$13 billion is earmarked for the nuclear arsenal sector, including $4.5 billion to accelerate the B-21 "Raider" stealth bomber program, $2 billion to deploy new sea-launched cruise missile nuclear warheads, and also mentioned expanding "Trident" II D-5 launch tubes on the Ohio-class strategic nuclear submarines due to Russia's suspension of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expiring in 2026 in 2023.

The next $1.2 billion is for maintaining the combat readiness of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and other military branches; another $1.1 billion will be used for U.S. military operations in the so-called "Indo-Pacific" region, with more than $4 billion allocated for "classified space-related programs."

The section on tactical aircraft is allocated $700 million, of which $315 million will be used to increase the production of F-15EX fighters. Other funds will be used to support the development of future fighter jets for the U.S. Air Force (F-47) and the U.S. Navy (FA/XX), as well as to extend the service life of current F-15E "Strike Eagle" and F-22A "Raptor" fighters.

According to "The War Zone" website, as one of the main currently produced aerial superiority platforms, the F-15EX was "approved for full-rate production" last June, although actual production conditions are not ideal. Previously, the U.S. Air Force had expressed a desire to purchase 98 aircraft (equivalent to five 18-aircraft combat squadrons and reserve aircraft). The report stated that it is unclear whether this funding will accelerate the production of the existing order of 98 aircraft or add extra quantities. If calculated based on adding additional quantities, it could potentially purchase around 32 to 34 new aircraft. However, costs related to additional aircraft personnel and infrastructure are not considered here. The $127.46 million allocated for "preventing the retirement of F-15E" can be used to cover maintenance costs for the currently needed F-15E aircraft. Previously, the U.S. Air Force planned to retire 119 out of 281 F-15E aircraft by the fiscal year 2028, but the National Defense Authorization Act signed in December 2024 "prohibits the retirement of any F-15E before October 1, 2027."

Even until last month, the total ninth F-15EX aircraft has only just completed painting...

Finally, $500 million will be used to strengthen relevant missions at the U.S. border; $400 million will be used to ensure the audit work of the Pentagon.

"The War Zone" website also reported that the U.S. Army's intermediate-range ballistic missile received $639 million in funding, although no specific models were mentioned. However, the document contains content such as $175 million to expand the production capacity of the U.S. Army's next-generation intermediate-range ballistic missile, $114 million to produce the Army's next-generation intermediate-range ballistic missile, and $300 million to produce the Army's intermediate-range ballistic missile. Notably, it also mentions "allocating $50 million to accelerate the development of the Army's next-generation intermediate-range anti-ship ballistic missile."

This article is an exclusive article of Observer Network and cannot be reprinted without permission.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7499069941388149274/

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