The Biden administration’s 2023 budget request remains focused on China, according to the $773 billion spending proposal sent to Congress on Monday.
U.S. officials called China a bigger long-term concern than Russia, whose invasion of Ukraine has led NATO members to deploy forces and enlarge spending plans. The U.S. proposal continues the military’s push toward a new generation of weapons and away from the arms that it relied upon over the two decades of counterterrorism and counter-insurgency wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“China is the pacing challenge and the budget’s going to reflect that,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said, in a briefing with reporters on Friday. “That challenge is getting greater over time, not less.”
By comparison, Kendall called Russia “an acute concern.”
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