WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter on Monday sent the military’s annual “wish lists” to U.S. lawmakers, including 12 Boeing Co F/A-18 fighter jets and 14 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets, but said he would not back any of the requests unless Congress passed a larger overall defence budget.

“Any extra programme inserted into our budget submission will come at the expense of other programs we deemed more important, with ripple effects across the rest of the budget,” Carter said in a letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

Carter told lawmakers he was sending the lists of “unfunded priorities” to Congress as required under a defence policy law of fiscal 2013, but registered his concerns about any moves by Congress to restructure the Pentagon’s budget request.

The biggest items on the annual lists this year included a dozen Boeing fighter jets requested by the Navy to cover projected shortfall in strike fighters in coming years at a projected cost of $1.15 billion. If approved by Congress, the orders could help Boeing extend production at its St. Louis manufacturing plant, which is currently slated to end in 2017.

The Navy also requested eight more F-35C fighter jets for use on its carriers for $1.04 billion, while the Marine Corps asked for six more F-35 B-model jets, which take off and land like helicopters, at a cost of $1.05 billion.

The Navy also asked for $65 million to buy an additional Triton unmanned surveillance plane built by Northrop Grumman Corp.

The Army asked for $200 million for PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement missiles built by Lockheed to keep up with surging demand for missile defence by military commanders, and $975 million to beef up cybersecurity at key sites in the United States, Europe and South Korea.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Eric Beech)-thestar