(Reuters)According to Bloomberg News on Monday, departing U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has suggested increasing defense expenditure by roughly $50 billion over the current 2026 estimates. This move might push the defense budget beyond $1 trillion in the upcoming years.

Austin suggested providing President-elect Trump's new government with a proposed five-year military plan that begins with $926.5 billion in fiscal 2026, compared with a predicted $876.8 billion, in a letter to the Office of Management and Budget dated Nov. 27 that Bloomberg was able to view.

A request for comment was not immediately answered by the Office of Management and Budget or the Pentagon.

In the letter, Austin stated, "I have not wavered in my assessment that meeting the demands of our strategy requires real growth" above inflation "and sustained new investments in fiscal years 2026-2030," according to Bloomberg.

Due to a two-year budget agreement reached in mid-2023 that restricted the budget to a 1% increase, President Joe Biden's 2025 defense and national security budget proposal, which was made public in March of last year, was only 1% higher than the one from the year before.

The action postponed efforts to replenish weapons inventories depleted by the wars in Israel and Ukraine and prompted a pause in expenditure on a variety of programs.

According to the Bloomberg story, the letter also suggested spending $972.8 billion in fiscal year 2027 and over $1 trillion in fiscal year 2028, with additional spending expected to surpass $1 trillion in fiscal years 2029 and 2030.

However, the report claims that Austin's proposed cash is only for the Pentagon and excludes aid to Israel and Ukraine.

The question of whether Trump would adopt Austin's suggestion was not immediately clear.

Last week, the president-elect of the United States announced that NATO members should increase their defense spending from the existing 2% target to 5% of GDP.