The U.S. response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine is poised to cost billions of dollars, with the Biden administration asking Congress for more Pentagon funding immediately and talk already starting of beefing up next year's defense budget.
The White House on Thursday asked Congress for $10 billion to respond to the war in Ukraine, including $4.8 billion for the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Thursday there's “no doubt” the invasion will mean a bigger defense budget in fiscal 2023 than previously expected.
Read Next: Navy Recovers Sunken F-35 Jet That Crashed Off the Deck of a Carrier into the South China Sea
“Without question, it's going to have to be bigger than we thought,” Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., said at an event at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine fundamentally altered what our national security posture and what our defense posture needs to be. It made it more complicated, and it made it more expensive.”
The U.S. military is deploying 14,000 troops to Eastern Europe to shore up defenses for NATO allies worried Moscow will continue pushing West after Ukraine.
The Pentagon has also shipped hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine in recent months, including a $350 million package approved by President Joe Biden last week.
The White House's Thursday request for emergency Pentagon…
