IRIA News

After receiving a from the U.S. Congress, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was signed into law on December 23, by President Joe Biden, officially approving a record funding bill for the Pentagon and the U.S. defense programs.

The NDAA for the financial year 2023 has been marked at a record $858 billion. A major share of this budget, $816.7 billion has been designated for the Department of Defence.  Most of the rest is destined for national security programs within the Department of Energy.

The amount exceeds defense spending by any other nation in the world and it is $45 billion more than the previous year. The U.S.’s yearly defense budget usually exceeds that of the next nine countries combined. Washington’s defense spending in 2021 accounted for almost 40 percent of the world’s total military spending.

“The Act provides vital benefits and enhances access to justice for military personnel and their families, and includes critical authorities to support our country’s national defense, foreign affairs, and homeland security,” President Biden said as he signed the NDAA into law at the White House. 

The 4500-page long document covered a wide range of topics related to U.S. national security as well as other international issues in complete detail. The document also proclaimed the U.S. spending plans for issues related to security including efforts to bolster Washington’s support for Ukraine and the NATO alliance, a focus on China, and mandates related to combatting the Middle East’s drug trade.

According to the Senate Armed Services Committee, the increase in the defense budget for the fiscal year 2023 is intended to address the effects of inflation and accelerate the implementation of the national defense strategy. NDAA authorizes $12.6 billion for the inflation impact on purchases, $3.8 billion for the impact on military construction projects, and $2.5 billion for the impact on fuel purchases.

The act also ends the requirement that troops must receive the COVID-19 vaccine. However, it does not state whether the military would reinstate the troops who were discharged for refusing to take the vaccine. The White House and congress have different approaches toward the vaccine mandate for the U.S. military.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre previously said the White House had viewed the removal of the vaccine mandate as “a mistake,” but she declined to say whether Biden would sign a bill that ends the requirement.

U.S. President Biden said in his post-signing statement, “I will commit to complying with its disclosure requirements only in such cases where a committee has a need for such Presidential communications that outweighs the potential harm to the confidentiality interests underlying the Presidential communications privilege.”

According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the act calls for the Navy to build a third Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and allocates $2.2 billion to the effort. “The act funds eight F-18E/F aircraft, 16 F-35C aircraft, 15 F-35B jets, and 12 CH-53K helicopters. The legislation also authorizes two more V-22 Osprey aircraft, seven E-2D Hawkeye aircraft, and five KC-130J tanker aircraft”, as well as funds several unmanned aerial platforms including the Triton and Stingray systems, the statement added.

The DoD statement highlighted that “The act authorizes the full fiscal year 2023 budget request for the European Deterrence Initiative and extends and modifies the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. It authorizes $800 million in the fiscal year 2023, an increase of $500 million above the initial budget request. 

The U.S. seeks to expand its footholds in the Indo-Pacific region and the act extends the Pacific Deterrence Initiative through the fiscal year and identifies approximately $11.5 billion of investments in support of initiative objectives.

According to the Pentagon statement, the “U.S. military works alongside allies, partners, and friends, and the act provides an increase of $198.5 million for partner capacity building through the International Security Cooperation Programs account within the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.”