Washington. June 24. INTERFAX-Pentagon Chief Lloyd Austin, speaking at the Armed Forces Committee of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, said that when preparing proposals for the US defense budget, the possibilities of new wars were taken into account.
"The Ministry of Defense should be ready to keep up with our competitors... and if necessary, fight and win the next war... not the last one, " the Pentagon website quotes the minister as saying.
According to Austin, the budget takes into account the need to pay more and more serious attention to China, in connection with which it is planned to spend more than $5 billion on the "Pacific deterrence initiative".
The minister noted that he "issued an internal directive", the purpose of which is to "strengthen the deterrence of the PRC, revive our network of regional allies and partners and accelerate the development of advanced capabilities and new operational concepts."
In addition, Austin named "countering hostility from Russia, especially in cyberspace,"as the priority tasks taken into account when drawing up the budget.
He said that $10 billion will be allocated for cybersecurity, operations in cyberspace, as well as research and development in the field of cybersecurity.
The Pentagon chief also said that "with an emphasis on space, missile defense... our budget will also help us counter the growing ballistic missile capabilities of countries such as North Korea and Iran."
The budget, according to Austin, provides for " investments in hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence, microelectronics, 5G technologies, space-based systems, shipbuilding and nuclear modernization."
