Mark Esper, secretary of the Department of Defense and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said in a memo that the Pentagon’s $740B budget request for fiscal year 2021 would advance weapons modernization, support service members and strengthen alliances in support of the “irreversible implementation of the National Defense Strategy,” Military Times reported Tuesday.
The department’s priorities cited in Esper’s Jan. 27 memo to top military leaders include the development of directed energy and hypersonic weapons, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems; creation of a joint warfighting concept; allocation of funds to nuclear deterrence and homeland missile defense; and establishment of the Space Force.
The White House is expected to release its FY 2021 budget proposal on Feb. 10.
