By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON -The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed President Joe Biden’s pick to be the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, a former official for defense acquisition in the administration of President Barack Obama.
Bill LaPlante, who was head of Charles Stark Draper Laboratories Inc, was approved by voice vote to be the next undersecretary of acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense.
Last month, Biden sought a record peacetime national defense budget of $813 billion, including the largest research and development budget in history.
At the same time, the budget slows the Defense Department’s purchasing of the stealthy F-35 fighter jet, the Pentagon’s largest weapons program, after Air Force leaders complained that technological improvements to the jet’s hardware were too slow.
Among the top priorities for this budget are shipbuilding, developing capabilities in space, missile warning and modernizing the nuclear “triad” of ballistic missile submarines, bombers and land-based missiles.
Only 61 F-35 jets made by Lockheed Martin Corp were requested by the Pentagon, down from a request of 85 last year, though experts believe Congress will increase that figure during the budget process.
The budget would benefit the biggest U.S. defense contractors including Lockheed, Raytheon Technologies Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and General Dynamics Corp.
The 2023 fiscal budget, which starts on Oct. 1, boasts the Pentagon’s largest research and development budget ever, with $130 billion earmarked to develop new weaponry like hypersonic missiles to fight any potential future wars against China and Russia.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)