I knew the number was going to be big - but I didn't know how big.
But according to Bloomberg, President Biden plans to request $813.3 billion in national security spending - including $773 billion for the Pentagon - in the federal budget he sends to Congress on Monday, according to officials familiar with the plan.
That would be a $31 billion, 4% increase from approved spending for the current fiscal year and about $43 billion more than the White House budget office had projected a year ago.
We all know why.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has crystalized what I've been saying for years, which is that we're entering a new era of chaos, disruption, and disorder. It's one where America's strength and influence will be continually challenged and it's going to take a lot to maintain it - if in fact we can.
For decades, Vladimir Putin has been working painstakingly to restore the Soviet Union. And now the subtext has become text. He's sacrificed thousands of Russian lives, the viability of his country's entire economy, and potentially his own fortune to that end.
To what extent he succeeds in that endeavor remains to be seen. So far, it's been limited, but it's also difficult to see him reversing course or giving up.
Instead it seems more likely that he'll stoop lower and resort to more desperate measures to achieve his aims. That could mean using chemical or even nuclear weapons. And that could ultimately lead to a real military response from NATO.
Furthermore, even if Putin is thwarted we'd still be faced with rising challenges from China and rogue states around the globe (North Korea and Iran, for instance).
With that, the window of the great peace that's lasted since the end of the Cold War has come to an end. And the era of de-escalation, arms-control treaties, and international order has been superseded by a new era of conflict and arms races.
A lot of conspiracy theorists perked up when Joe Biden used the phrase "new world order" to describe it, but this is what he was talking about.
And so the largest defense budget in history is poised to grow larger still, with more than $800 billion flowing into the Department of Defense, the Energy Department that manages our nuclear program, and intelligence agencies like the NSA, FBI, and CIA.
The request will include $130.1 billion for research and development of cutting-edge war-fighting technology like hypersonic missiles and artificial intelligence. That's $15.6 billion more than the budget office had projected last year, but entirely necessary if we're going to close the technological gap.
Indeed, even as Russia's invasion has devolved into an ugly quagmire, the country still debuted its hypersonic weaponry on the battlefield when it fired a Kinzhal missile into an underground ammunition depot, marking the first time such weapons have ever been deployed.
The Biden administration will fund more traditional weapons requests too, of course, with $146 billion ($9.4 billion more than projected last year) earmarked for procurement.
That shopping list will include F-35 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), B-21 bombers from Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), and two Virginia-class submarines from General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) and Huntington Ingalls (NYSE: HII).
Coincidentally, this budget also leaked just as Biden began a multiday meeting with other NATO leaders to discuss new measures the group can take to support Ukraine, more sanctions to punish Russia, and the terrifying prospect of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons being deployed.
Obviously, countries throughout Europe have been unsettled by Russia's actions and roused to action, as well.
That's translated into a huge bump in defense spending among countries that haven't traditionally focused their resources on the military.