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Congress must pass Trump’s $1.5T defense-spending ask — or risk inviting future wars

America’s warfighting prowess is undisputed, but we have dangerously depleted our materiel stores, which is why President Donald Trump has wisely asked Congress to significantly boost defense spending to $1.5 trillion.

Every cent must be approved.

Operations in Iran, combined with support for our allies Israel and Ukraine, have drained our munitions supplies across multiple categories.

Air-defense interception networks like the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense and Patriot systems have been nearly exhausted, as have 155 mm artillery rounds and the long-range, state-of-the-art Precision Strike Missile.

THAAD, Patriot and the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile systems — which provide crucial air defense — have been deployed extensively throughout the Gulf States.

Operation Epic Fury and aiding allies is vital, but every missile deployed is one less in our reserves.

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Naval-based interceptors, crucial for layered air-defense networks, have also been deployed, notably to destroy Houthi-launched ballistic missiles, at “an alarming rate,” as Adm. James Kilby, acting chief of naval operations, testified last year.

The state of our naval fleet is downright alarming: Built for an earlier era of sea-lane protection and naval combat, it’s now “shrinking to grow” by retiring older, high-maintenance ships like the Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Los Angeles-class submarines before their replacements are ready.

The Navy has only 290 deployable ships; China has already surpassed that with 370 ships and is racing to have 435 seabound vessels by 2030. And China’s shipbuilding capacity is more than 200 times greater than America’s.

The United States must rapidly ramp up its arms-production capabilities, which is why Trump’s 42% increase to the warfighting budget is an important first step.

US military strategy since World War II has aimed to be able to fight two major conflicts simultaneously.

The world has only grown more complex and perilous, but our guard has fallen.

It’s practically an invitation for China to move on Taiwan.

To deter that — or, indeed, any — challenge, potential enemies need to see they’d face a US military sufficiently supplied to inflict overwhelming pain.

Trump’s spending request will help get us to that level.

Democrats who claim to want to avoid wars should race to back it, or the chances of war will only grow.

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