Biden requested $773 billion for the Pentagon, and an additional $40 billion is earmarked for defense-related programs at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Energy and other agencies, bringing the national security budget to $813 billion, up from $778 billion last year.
The budget will boast a 4.6% pay raise for troops and the largest research and development budget in history.
Biden's request for the military budget for the Pentagon eclipses the budget requests by former President Donald Trump.
The Biden administration has sought support for the massive military budget from Democrats and Republicans arguing that Russian President Vladimir Putin is presenting a growing national security and foreign policy threat to the United States.
Putin order a military campaign in Ukraine last month. He said his country is defending Russian-speaking communities through the "demilitarisation and de-Nazification" of Ukraine so that their neighbor became neutral and no longer threatened Russia.
Biden, however, called the Russian military action in Ukraine an "unprovoked and unjustified attack," and the mainstream American media described it as the biggest assault on a European state since World War Two attack by Russia.
The US budget increases funds for the Pentagon's European Deterrence Initiative by $360 million to a total of $4.2 billion.
In a statement, the US president said he was requesting more money to strengthen the US military and "forcefully respond to Putin’s aggression against Ukraine with $1 billion in additional US support for Ukraine’s economic, humanitarian, and security needs."
Washington also says it is concerned that Beijing is increasing its military spending and modernizing its force with weapons systems including the J-20 stealth fighter, hypersonic missiles and two aircraft carriers, with a third under construction.
China has made a robust increase in military budget amid rising tensions with the US and territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and Washington’s constant meddling in Chinese Taipei (Taiwan).
Earlier this month, China announced a 7.1 hike in military spending. The Chinese military received a total of $230 billion in funding in 2022 which is still far less than the whopping US military budget for 2022, which is to the tune of $$813 billion.
The United States earlier this month made a stunning admission, saying that Ukraine hosted US-funded “biological research facilities."
US Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland expressed concern during a Senate hearing on Ukraine after Russia published documents showing that Kiev was ordered to urgently eliminate traces of what was deemed as a biological weapons program, financed by the Pentagon.
Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had found evidence of US-funded biolabs in Ukraine.
The ministry said it had been closely monitoring the bioweapons programs that were developed by the Pentagon in post-Soviet countries, adding that according to new findings, a “network” of more than 30 biological laboratories was formed in Ukraine in particular.
On February 27, Putin put the country’s nuclear deterrence forces on “high alert,” reacting to aggressive statements by NATO’s leading members.
"Top officials of leading NATO nations indulge in making aggressive statements about our country,” Putin told a briefing. “Therefore, I am ordering the minister of defense and the chief of the general staff to put the deterrence forces of the Russian army into special combat duty mode.”
The announcement came after Germany and other European countries said they would speed weapons and other military assistance to help Ukraine battle Russian forces. It also followed a warning by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss that if Russia's military operation in Ukraine was not "stopped," it could lead to a conflict with NATO.
Former American presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul said the United States is actually escalating the conflict because Congress and the Biden administration are determined to drag Washington into a war with Moscow.
“Congress and the US Administration seem determined to drag the United States into a war with Russia over Ukraine. Senator Lindsay Graham is openly calling for someone to kill the Russian president and many in the US House have demanded that the Administration establish a ‘no-fly zone’ over Ukraine,” Dr. Paul wrote in an article.
“Are they insane? A no-fly zone means you destroy anything and everything that can prevent total US air dominance. That means an attack on Russian missile and air defense systems within Russia. In other words, World War III,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked the US to establish "no-fly zones" to protect Ukraine from Russian airstrikes and stop buying Russian oil and gas.
Putin warned that any attempt to impose a no-fly zone in Ukraine would lead to catastrophic consequences for the world.
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