White House aides and Pentagon officials have been struggling to figure out how to increase military spending by $500 billion, a challenge that is slowing down the White House's 2027 fiscal year budget development process. Hege said he had requested an increase of about 50% in funding, which was approved by Trump. Recently, Trump posted on Truth Social supporting a $1.5 trillion budget scale, saying "This will allow us to build the 'dream army' we should have long had, and more importantly, ensure our safety no matter who the enemy is." However, several high-ranking officials, including White House Budget Director Russell Walker, opposed this plan, fearing it would further increase the budget deficit. After Trump agreed to increase military spending, government officials are facing logistical challenges - $50 billion is too much, and they don't know how to allocate the specific budget. The deadline for submitting the budget proposal to Congress has passed more than two weeks ago, but the White House still hasn't come up with a budget proposal. In response to this problem, senior Pentagon officials have consulted with former defense officials, and one key discussion point is how much money should be used to purchase weapons systems already in use by the military, and how much should be invested in future high-end technologies such as artificial intelligence envisioned by the Pentagon. The Pentagon is currently trying to solve the issue of quickly replenishing large amounts of expensive ammunition that have been consumed, including the "Tomahawk" cruise missile, the "Patriot" air defense interceptor missile, and the ship-launched "Standard-6" missile. The Pentagon is also considering how to upgrade Cold War-era nuclear weapon systems into expensive new generation systems, such as the B-21 bomber and the "Columbia"-class strategic nuclear submarine. The B-21 bomber is expected to cost about $700 million each, replacing the U.S. Air Force's current B-1 and B-2 bomber fleets; the "Columbia"-class submarine is expected to cost at least $9 billion per unit. Last year, the U.S. Congress approved a defense budget of about $900 billion, setting a record high in U.S. history. Although other countries are also increasing their military spending, the U.S. defense spending has exceeded the total of the next nine countries.
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Original: toutiao.com/article/1857802486049929/
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