After the decision of US president Joe Biden of cutting the budget for defense, The chiefs expressed kind of their unsatisfying with the cut.

Both Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said they are afraid of the decision's impact.

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Edited by | tony wild
politics section
24 march 2023 - Washington - The Hill

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      Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said any defense budget cuts would have a serious impact on the U.S. military’s warfighting capability.

“We would have to cut a significant amount of programs,” Milley said while also voicing concerns about readiness and training.

“All of those things would come down, all your readiness levels, everything that has been achieved [in the last decade] would start going in the opposite direction,” the nation’s top general continued.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said defense cuts would impact cybersecurity and civilian personnel in the Pentagon.

“If we cut those kinds of people, I think it will have a significant impact on our war-fighting capability,” Austin said. “Cyber threats in this day and age are enormous and they come from every corner of the globe.”

Most Republicans remain opposed to defense spending cuts, but they have called for an end to “woke” programs in the military such as diversity training, despite those making up a small portion of the budget.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) agreed with more conservative lawmakers in January to cap all new discretionary spending at the fiscal year 2022 levels.

It remains unclear where the GOP would make desired budget cuts, but defense spending could drop by billions of dollars if capped at 2022 levels.

Also at the hearing, Austin told Congress that the meeting this week between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping “sends a very troubling message” to the world.

“Just showing support by his presence there, I think, is very troubling,” he said.

Xi concluded a three-day visit to Russia on Wednesday, a trip that China called a “journey of friendship, cooperation, and peace.”

The U.S. remains concerned that Beijing will support Russia’s war in Ukraine with lethal aid.

Austin told Congress that if China decides to provide lethal support, it “would prolong the conflict.”

“And certainly broaden the conflict potentially — not only in the region but globally,” he said.