House panel backs Biden's $715B Pentagon budget; handcuffs F-35

摘要

The House Armed Services Committee's version of the fiscal year 2022 defense authorization bill sets a topline budget of $715 billion for the Pentagon, aligning with the amount requested by President Biden in April, but $25 billion less than what Senate authorizers have approved. According to Committee Chairman Adam Smith's (D-WA) "chairman's mark" obtained by Inside Defense, the topline for total defense spending, which includes the Energy Department's nuclear weapons programs, is $744 billion, also in line with the Biden administration's request. Smith has said he believes $715 billion is enough money for the Pentagon, but has also said he understands there are likely enough votes in Congress to increase the defense budget. The full committee is slated to debate the bill in a marathon mark-up session Sept. 1. Among a host of other things, the 507-page mark would implement new "cost constraints" on the Lockheed Martin-built F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, limiting the total number of aircraft that can be procured or maintained in inventory "based on existing affordability cost targets that have been determined by" military service secretaries.