Biden’s meager 1% US defense budget increase buys fewer ships, jets

President Joe Biden's overall U.S. defense and national security budget request expected on Monday will be just 1% higher than last year, forcing a slowdown in spending on a wide range of programs and delaying efforts to rebuild weapons stocks depleted by wars in Ukraine and Israel. The $895 billion national security budget request, which includes funds for homeland security as well as nuclear weapons-related activities carried out by the Department of Energy, is the result of a two-year budget deal struck in mid-2023 that limited the budget to a 1% increase. Under the cap, the Pentagon's share of the national defense budget was expected to be $850 billion.