Austin announced an increase in the U.S. defense budget to $841 billion in 2025

The U.S. defense budget will increase to $841 billion to support the country's military potential in 2025. This was announced by Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin on December 7 during a speech at a forum on national defense in the state of California.

"We aim to increase our defense spending in fiscal year 2025 by more than $100 billion over the 2021 estimate. The latest National Defense Authorization Act maintains the department's historic funding of $841 billion," he said.

According to Austin, the increase in defense spending is necessary to support the military capabilities of the United States in connection with significant challenges, to which the head of the Pentagon referred Russia, China and DPRK.

Earlier, on November 20, Samuel Paparo, head of the Indo-Pacific Command of the U.S. Armed Forces, said that the stockpile of the latest U.S. weapons, including air defense systems (ADS), is shrinking due to support for Ukraine and Israel. He said this is affecting "America's readiness to respond in the Indo-Pacific region." Paparo also added that he was "dissatisfied with the ammunition stockpile" available to the US.

On Oct. 29, the Pentagon said it had identified problems with army depots amid support for Kiev. As a result, the U.S. agency is demanding an increase in production capacity to ensure that enough new, improved ammunition is produced.

Dan Grazer, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, said in an article for the October 21 edition of the think tank Quincy Institute for Responsible Government in Washington that the U.S. military-industrial complex (MIC) is currently facing a problem in which the cost of new weapons is outpacing the country's defense budget. He noted that as the cost of weapons increases, the number of systems being produced decreases.

Prior to this, on August 12, Eric Labsa, a naval analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, reported that ship production for the U.S. Navy (Navy) is in the worst shape in 25 years. Speaking to Defense News, the specialist noted that the key problem of the industry is the shortage of workers. Older specialists are retiring, and young people are not getting jobs in production.