Pentegon building
The US Department of Defense said in a statement released on Tuesday it has made public its request for $1.7 billion in additional funding for its military intelligence operations.

Earlier a Pentagon spokesman stated that the US Department of Defense believes the Asia-Pacific to be a top priority and "in principle" supports the $7.5 billion military funding aiming to increase US military presence and build up infrastructure in the area.

"The Department of Defense released today the revised Military Intelligence Program (MIP) top line budget request for fiscal year 2017 that was disclosed to the public on Feb. 9, 2016," the statement said. "The $16.8 billion is now updated to [$18.5 billion to] include additional funding above the initial president's budget request for the MIP."

US Office of National Intelligence Requests to Boost Budget by $1.4Bln

The office of the Director of National Intelligence has announced on Tuesday that it requested additional $1.4 billion in funding for the fiscal year 2017 on top of originally planned $53.5 billion.

"The updated aggregate amount of FY 2017 appropriations requested for the NIP [National Intelligence Program] is $54.9 billion," the office said in a release.