Pentagon Keeps Focus on Modernizing to Counter China in FY2021 Budget Request

An artistic rendition of DARPA’s Hypersonic Technology Vehicle (HTV-2). The Chinese regime recently held its fourth test of a hypersonic missile. DARPA

The Pentagon’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2021 keeps the U.S. military on course to counter China and Russia, boosting hypersonic missiles, nuclear modernization, 5G technologies, and missile defense, as well as the newly minted Space Force.

After three years of ramped-up military spending, the proposal is virtually flat at $740 billion—just $2 billion more than the current year. The Department of Defense request is technically $705 billion, but another $35 billion is earmarked for a sister agency that handles nuclear weapons.