US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth urged senators to approve President Donald Trump’s $87.6 billion supplemental funding request on Tuesday, saying the military needed immediate resources to confront mounting threats.
“This request is an urgent, necessary injection of resources to address the immediate needs of our department,” Hegseth said.
“The military requires a generational investment to deliver on peace through strength. We know the best way to create peace is to prepare for war, to deter it. And that’s exactly what the Department of War is doing, building a force so capable that it would be absurd for anyone to challenge it,” he continued.
The White House submitted the request to Congress on June 24. Around $67 billion would go to the Department of War, largely to cover operational costs, replenish weapons and invest in munitions, drones, cybersecurity and other military capabilities.
The wider package includes support for farmers, funding for the response to an Ebola outbreak in Central Africa and money for infrastructure projects in Washington, DC.
“Under President Trump, we have built a different type of department. The Pentagon is no longer run by bureaucrats. Instead, it’s led by combat-tested veterans and world-class business leaders who are running the department like a business and tech titans who are bringing lethal innovation to the battlefield. We’re also at a different moment, and we cannot afford inaction.”
Hegseth told the hearing that the US war against Iran had cost approximately $37.5 billion.
Caine opened his testimony by paying tribute to troops killed in Iranian attacks in Jordan and during the controlled detonation of an Iranian drone in Iraq.
Turning to the changing character of warfare, Caine warned that cheap drones and other unmanned systems were putting lethal technology into the hands of a growing range of adversaries.
“The low barrier to entry created by affordable, ubiquitous, unmanned systems means our adversaries, rogue actors, state and non-state actors, and violent extremists have access to disruptive and potentially lethal technologies at scale. We’ve seen this in Ukraine, and we must adopt elements of this fight for our future fights,” he said.
The funding appeal came as US and Iranian forces continued trading renewed attacks across the region. The US military identified a third service member believed killed in Friday’s attack on a base in Jordan, bringing the number of US troops killed since the war began to 18.
Source: Viory
