New Delhi: The head of the US Pacific Command (USPACOM) has warned the US Congress of a rising threat of war with China and sought at least $122 billion to strengthen American presence in the Indo-Pacific region, according to a report by Washington Times.
The funding sought by Admiral Samuel J. Paparo Jr., in a report to the US Congress and obtained by the American daily, amounts to $67.4 billion for new missiles, and $18 billion towards countering Chinese military control systems. An additional $15 billion was sought for the US space-based missile warning system and battlefield surveillance sensors, and $2.3 billion for maritime and ground-based drone weaponry.
Admiral Paparo is the top US military commander for the USPACOM, whose name was restored Wednesday by the US Department of War from the US Indo-Pacific Command.
UPSACOM operates forces extending from the US West Coast all the way to India.
The Admiral’s report is an independent military assessment, mandated by a 2021 defence legislation and continuing annually under the Pacific Deterrence Initiative. None of these annual assessments have been publicly released by UPSACOM or the Pentagon.
The copy of this year’s report to Congress, dated 6 April, serves as an unclassified roadmap to influence Congress’s 2027 defense spending bill.
The Pentagon is requesting $1.5 trillion—its largest request in US history. While $1.1 trillion of the requested budget will go towards discretionary authority, the other $350 billion will be allocated to mandatory spending.
The funding request serves as a “monumental paradigm shift in resourcing that directly addresses these requirements at the speed and scale necessary to defend the homeland and defeat China’s misaligned strategy,” Admiral Paparo affirmed in the report.
He also asserted that USPACOM’s $122 billion request for the 2027 fiscal year to support new weapons and military systems is “the minimum investments required to sustain credible deterrence and prevail in conflict if deterrence fails”. The Congress is expected to vote on the defence appropriations bill prior to the July 2026 recess.
Guam & Pacific shield
“The security environment in the Indo-Pacific is becoming more dangerous and defined by an increasing risk of confrontation and crisis,” Admiral Paparo wrote in the 221-page report. “China’s aggressive military modernisation, territorial expansion and deepening relationships with Russia and North Korea present key challenges in an increasingly complex security environment.”
The Admiral reiterated warnings of other top US military officials by stating that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has been ordered to prepare for military operations against Taiwan by 2027. Under its ‘One China’ principle, Beijing maintains that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the two must be “reunified”.
The report indicated that the Pentagon plans to deploy offensive missiles on Guam, a US-held territory in the western Pacific that serves as an American military hub. This comes while integrated air and missile defence systems are being set up on the island.
Admiral Paparo has requested $909 million for the Guam Defence System in order to counter Chinese ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles. The Washington Times report detailed the command’s intentions of enhancing military deployments across the First Island Chain, a series of islands off the Chinese coast, as well as the Second Island Chain, which extends south from Japan all the way down the western Pacific to Guam.
The analysis brought forth in the Admiral’s report contrasts US President Donald Trump’s renewed approach to China in the last few months, in which the US and China announced a “constructive relationship of strategic stability”.
As Congress weighs the Pentagon’s record defence budget request, Admiral Paparo’s assessment highlights growing concern within the US military that the window for deterring a conflict with China may be narrowing. Whether lawmakers approve recommendations could shape Washington’s military posture in the Indo-Pacific for years to come.
Kyra Menon is an intern at ThePrint
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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