US military spending gets increase

Mattis to review if a spate of recent accidents is linked to budget caps

WASHINGTON - The US Senate overwhelmingly authorized $700 billion in military spending on Monday, a substantial increase over 2017 funding and nearly 5 percent more than President Donald Trump had requested.

The 1,215-page National Defense Authorization Act of 2018 allows for increased spending on new F-35 fighter jets, ships and M1 Abrams tanks, raises military pay by 2.1 percent and authorizes nearly $5 billion for Afghanistan security forces, including a program integrating women into the country's national defense.

It also authorizes $8.5 billion to boost US missile defense - a full $630 million above Trump's baseline request - at a time of heightened tensions with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea over its testing of nuclear devices and ballistic missiles.

The bill provides for $60 billion in war funding known as Overseas Contingency Operations, and boosted military enlistment figures by 7,000.

The legislation, one of the cornerstones of congressional bipartisanship over the decades, passed 89 to 8.

The House of Representatives passed its version in July, and the two chambers will now need to thrash out a compromise bill.

"It keeps faith with our men and women in uniform," Republican John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said of the bill he shepherded through the chamber.

McCain was quick to point to the increasing number of training accidents within the military, saying the lack of force readiness was a result of ever-tightening budgets that left the army, navy and other branches depleted.

"My friends, more of our men and women in uniform are now being killed in totally avoidable training accidents and routine operations than by our enemies in combat," McCain told his colleagues.

"Where is the outrage about this? Where is our sense of urgency to deal with this problem?"

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said senior military leaders are taking a close look at whether strict budget constraints are to blame.

Since June, more than 70 US service members have either been killed or injured in training or noncombat accidents, ranging from two naval collisions in Asia to a Marine Corps transport plane crash in rural Mississippi.

"I am not willing to say right now that there is a direct line between sequestration and what has happened. I am willing to say ... we are going to take a very close look at that," Mattis said.

McCain said it was imperative that Congress lift the spending caps on a bipartisan basis in order to fully fund military operations.

The legislation also includes a wide range of provisions, including an expansion of US missile defense, a ban on Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs products in the federal government, and rejection of the closing of more military bases.

AFP-Reuters-AP-Xinhua

(China Daily 09/20/2017 page11)