It s quite the impressive shopping list.
On May 28, the Department of Defense released its $752.9 billion defense budget request for 2022 a document which will almost certainly be subject to the extensive back-and-forth in Congress before being signed into law.
Though the budget will certainly be revised, it nonetheless serves as a guide to the Biden-era Department of Defense’s priorities, with a record $112 billion devoted to research and development of future technologies at the expense of reducing forces in the near term. This seemingly is based on the premise that there is a limited short-term risk of major conflict, but that there is a need to secure technological overmatch versus the maturing military capabilities of China in the next decade.
The Army’s move to integrate a mature and capable off-the-shelf weapon onto its Apaches seems like an all-around win for keeping the Army’s Apache helicopter fleet tactically and financially viable in the coming decades.
The US Department of State has approved a potential USD3.5 billion Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to Australia of 29 Boeing AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters along with related equipment and services. The US Defense Security Cooperation.