President Biden on Thursday sent Congress a supplemental budget request that would provide funding to continue arming Ukrainian forces and help replenish Defense Department weapons stocks.
The supplemental is also targeted at beefing up U.S. disaster relief funding and combating the smuggling of the synthetic opioid fentanyl into the U.S.
The largest portion of the request as it pertains to Ukraine is for $9.9 billion in DoD wide operations and maintenance funding for various expenses. This includes $5 billion under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which is used to award contracts to industry to meet Ukraine weapons needs. It also includes $4.5 billion to replace DoD weapons stocks and reimburse the department for services, education and training provided to Ukraine.
The $9.9 billion also includes funding for personnel and operational support such as intelligence analysis, weapon system sustainment, flying hours, maintenance, and other costs.
The procurement section of the supplemental asks for nearly $900 million related to Ukraine, mostly under the Army’s budget for missiles and mine clearing equipment. Specifically, $755 million is sought “to increase production of missile systems and accelerate the production of equipment in order to more rapidly replenish defense stocks that are needed for the European theater of operations,” the request says.
The request for mine clearing equipment for use in Europe is $4.5 million.
Another $43.8 million is sought under the Navy and Marine Corps ammunition account to increase capacity and accelerate production “to more rapidly replenish defense stocks.”
The supplemental also seeks about $25 million, including nearly $23 defense-wide procurement for cybersecurity and other defense support in the European theater of operations, and more than $2 million for the Air Force under a classified aircraft procurement account and a classified “other” procurement account.
More than $165 million is being requested for research, development, testing and evaluation for cybersecurity and defense support in the European theater to respond to the “situation in Ukraine,” the supplemental says. The largest chunk of funding is for the Air Force, $101.8 million, followed by DoD-wide at $56 million—which also references classified needs—and $9.2 million for the Navy.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are also sought for the military services’ operation and maintenance accounts, the largest request being $852.4 million for the Army to cover temporary duty costs, intelligence analysis, flying hours, weapon system sustainment, and other costs. Another $310.9 million is sought for the Navy and $265.4 million for the Air Force for the same O&M expenses.
For international security assistance managed by the State Department, the supplemental seeks $1 billion for the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program in support of Ukraine, other countries affected by the war in Ukraine, NATO allies, and other partners in the areas of air defense, artillery, armor, anti-armor and maritime security.
The Biden administration says the FMF funding would also support the U.S.-Taiwan defense relationship and help “expedite the delivery of defense articles to Taiwan by supporting modifications to assistance provided under Presidential Drawdown Authority.”
Drawdown authority is used to take weapons from U.S. stocks and provide them to U.S. allies and partners.