Increase in military spending, creating a new boom for arms manufacturers

The combination of the war in Ukraine and concerns about longer-term threats from Russia and China is driving a bipartisan push to increase capacity of the United States to produce weapons.< /p>

By Eric Lipton, Michael Crowley and John Ismay

WASHINGTON - Perspective growing military threats from China and Russia is driving bipartisan support for increased Pentagon spending, creating another potential boom for arms makers that is expected to extend beyond the United States. war in Ukraine.

Congress is on track next week to give final approval to a national military budget for the current fiscal year which is expected to reach approximately $858 billion, or $45 billion more than President Biden requested.

If approved at this level, the Pentagon budget will have increased by 4.3% per year over the past two years – even after inflation – compared to an average of less than 1% per year in real dollars between 2015 and 2021, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments for the New York Times.

Procurement expenses nt would rise sharply next year, including a 55% increase in funding for the military to purchase new missiles and a 47% jump for Navy aes weapons purchases.

On Friday, Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden's national security adviser, put the buildup in strategic terms, saying the war in Ukraine had exposed shortcomings in the country's military industry . base that needed to be addressed to ensure that the United States is "able to support Ukraine and meet contingencies elsewhere in the world".

Lockheed Martin, the nation's largest military contractor, had booked more than $950 million of his own missile army