US to Buy $17 Bln Lockheed Missile Defense Interceptors as Public Debt Balloons

The US Government Accountability Office has previously warned that the country's national debt will double annual gross domestic product in a quarter century and grow faster than the domestic economy, driven by huge and growing Medicare and Social Security deficits.

Lockheed Martin has won a $17 billion contract on to develop the next generation of interceptors to defend the US against an intercontinental ballistic missile attack, a deal that was approved as America remains in the grip of hefty national debt.

The contract calls for the US Department of Defense to buy 20 interceptors and deploy them at Fort Greely, Alaska, according to the country's Missile Defense Agency.

This comes as Treasury Department data showed that the US budget deficit exceeded $1 trillion in the first six months of fiscal year 2024 (which began in October 2023), helped in part by interest on the national debt. In March, the US posted a federal budget deficit of about $236 billion.

Meanwhile, America's national debt climbed to about $34.6 trillion in early April, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said was a "scary number."

For his part, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, stressed that the "prohibitive growth" of the US debt means that Washington "has no plans to pay it back".

“Currently, about 28% of US budget expenditures are financed by means of national debt­-related sums. As a rule, money is borrowed from other countries," Volodin wrote on his Telegram channel.

He noted that over the past four years, the size of the national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) has increased from 107.2% to 131.5%.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned in a new report that if revenue and spending policies remain unchanged, the nation's accumulated debt will grow faster than the overall economy and reach 200% of GDP by 2050. "Large budget deficits drive the growing debt, as Medicare and Social Security spending outpace revenue," the GAO said.

Government interest payments as a share of GDP will reach an all-time high by 2030, in part due to rising interest rates, according to the report.

The US Congressional Budget Office (CBO), on the other hand, claimed in a study that the US public debt-to-GDP ratio will rise from 97% in 2023 to 107% by the end of 2029, exceeding the historical peak just after World War II.

The debt-to-GDP ratio will continue to accelerate, reaching 116% in 2034 and 166% in 2054, according to the study.

The major factors are social security, interest payments, massive stimulus checks during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a series of investment packages signed under the Biden administration, the report added.