U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), top-ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, proposed a massive increase in Pentagon spending to build up U.S. military interest and the defense industrial base for generations to come.
Hailing the idea as the “21st Century Peace Through Strength” plan, Wicker’s proposal would set out billions over fiscal year 2025 defense spending caps, at a time when Republicans and Democrats have tussled repeatedly over the national debt. Yet Wicker said it was necessary in the face of an emerging axis of aggressors determined to undermine U.S. interests worldwide. In his view, the defense industrial base cannot meet the challenges of the time.
“Our defense industrial base is underfunded and unprepared for the wars of today, tomorrow, and the foreseeable future,” a release from Wicker’s office said.
In order to change this, he proposed growing the annual defense budget to 5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over time. He cited recent expert findings on China’s defense spending to sell the idea.
“Defense investment does not guarantee victory. But failing to invest properly denies us a chance to deter war,” Wicker said in his report. “Right now we are spending too little. The problems the U.S. military faces are solvable, but fixing them will require leader-
ship from Washington. We have seen this investment strategy work before. The Reagan-era defense buildup demonstrated that a peace dividend can be purchased for the world, but it cannot be done on the cheap. The following proposal is significant, but it is far less costly than America engaged in direct kinetic conflict with one or more of our adversaries. ‘Peace through strength’ continues to be the most cost-effective national security policy. This investment can allow America to enjoy another peace dividend, as we did in the 1990s.”
The plan called out specific defense areas, laying out strategies for different branches and regions in detail. Some notable pushes focused on reforms, such as establishing requirements for foreign military sales and the presidential drawdown authority for stockpile reserves, while eliminating munitions purchases below maximum production rates unless the U.S. stockpile was already over total munitions requirement levels. Logistics exercises and the reversal of certain missile defense cancellations were demanded. Additionally, it called for a forward push on a $5.2 billion backlog of Defense Production Act (DPA) projects, while reforming the act itself.
Under the plan, military modernization could be accelerated, new nuclear-sharing agreements considered, and rotational deployments for U.S. forces increased in Eastern Europe, as Russia steps up its invasion of Ukraine. Constraints on foreign military sales to partner nations in the Gulf could be loosened and private capital partnerships pursued to blunt Chinese and Russian influence in various regions, among several other efforts.