US President Biden has made his first budget request to the Department of Defense, cutting $8 billion in procurement and dealing a heavy blow to dozens of legacy weapons and systems, in order to drive $5.5 billion in cutting-edge technology development and testing that could contain China. The Pentagon's application for $715 billion for the 2022 fiscal year, submitted to Congress on Friday, means an increase of $11 billion and lags behind the inflation rate. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that this is the "largest ever" research, development, testing, and evaluation funding application. The White House proposes to invest $112 billion in this area, an increase of 5%.

On the other hand, procurement funds (used to purchase new equipment in the procurement account) will decrease by nearly 6% to $133.6 billion. The budget will recover $2.4 billion for "defense reform" and $2.8 billion for "divestment", including retired A-10, F-15, and F-16 tactical aircraft and retired naval vessels, including 4 coastal combat ships and 2 cruisers. The budget requirement includes a $5.1 billion Pacific Deterrence Initiative, with the largest share of $4.9 billion allocated for joint force lethality, $150 million for exercises, experiments, and innovations, and $23 million for force design and posture. In terms of lethality, this account includes investments in the "Tomahawk" and Standard Missile 6; Ground based conventional firepower exceeds the 500 kilometer limit of the expired Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, as well as hypersonic weapons such as naval conventional rapid strike capabilities.

On Friday, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks stated, "The budget also documents some difficult choices we must make as we reduce our reliance on fragile systems that are no longer suitable for today's advanced threat environment or are too costly to sustain." Importantly, we are reallocating resources to fund research and development of advanced technologies such as microelectronics. This will provide a foundation for the deployment of comprehensive capabilities such as hypersonic missiles, artificial intelligence, and 5G. The highest service budget for the Army is $174 billion, a decrease of $1.5 billion from the level of the 2012 fiscal year, while the Navy's budget is $207 billion, an increase of $4.6 billion; The Air Force received $204 billion, an increase of $8.8 billion. In the Air Force's figures, the Space Force has risen from $15.4 billion to $17.5 billion. Despite officials from the Department of Defense stating that the Department's focus on China has driven the growth of the Navy and Air Force, Austin and General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers on Thursday that the Army is not the "payer" for other branches of the military. They emphasized that the budget fully funds the six modernization priorities of the military, and all services need to make difficult choices that they will need for future battles.