WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th March, 2023) The Biden administration is going to use the new, more flexible budgetary authority granted to the Defense Department by Congress to expand and stabilize existing production for key weapons systems, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Douglas Bush said.
"In 2024, we are going to present the Congress with our plans for multi-years (contracts)," Bush said on Friday. "We are going to present our plans for expanding and stabilizing the industrial base for munitions, locking down healthy production lines. We can ramp up production."
The Defense Department will present to Congress the benefits of stabilizing the US military-industrial base to produce far more munitions and more cost effectively on a much larger scale, Bush said.
"Locking some of those (contracts) down in multi-year (commitments) will ... ensure that we have healthy production lines that could ramp up" to rapidly expand the volumes of weapons produced, Bush added.
Congress expanded the discretion of the Defense Department in funding and expanding ammunition and weapons launcher lines in the Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Appropriations Act in response to the rundown of stockpiles and increased demand on limited production lines caused by the shipment of so many weapons and ammunition to aid Ukraine.
