Adm. Christopher Grady, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cited the defense supply chain and the pacing challenge of China as some of the key priorities to justify the $842 billion defense budget proposed by President Biden for fiscal year 2024.
“The budget expands the department’s efforts in all domain awareness; it increases resiliency in the Defense Industrial Base; and renews our magazine depth so that we are ready whenever we are called,” Grady told reporters Monday at a joint press briefing with Defense Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks.
He iterated that the Joint Requirements Oversight Committee conducted an in-depth study of the costs necessary to execute the Joint Warfighting Concept, a strategy encompassing fires, command and control, information advantage and cybersecurity, and contested logistics.
The U.S. military’s No. 2 officer added that Joint Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley is prioritizing munitions and looking into incentives and multi-year procurement to sustain the national stockpile.
Grady shared that DOD conducts annual assessments of stockpile to determine the best investment strategy.
When asked about the agency’s plans for space asset resiliency, Grady said that it is covered in the new budget request and is a constant theme being discussed within the JROC.
Grady, Hicks and Milley are all recipients of the Wash100 Award, an annual elite list of leaders that made a significant impact on the government contracting industry.