US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has been focused on the world’s “great power conflict” in the 2017 Department of Defense budget, says one of his assistants in reference to Washington’s adversaries, including China and Russia.

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities Robert Scher made the remarks at the Center for Strategic International Studies on Monday, Sputnik reported.

Scher who was speaking on the US so-called defense spending along with other Pentagon officials told the forum at the think tank that not enough efforts have been made by the US to subdue its opponents.

"One of the key areas to focus on… in this budget is to say that great power conflict is something that we hadn’t done as much work on as we had done on other issues in the past, and [Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter] clearly wanted to focus on that," Scher said.

The total US defense budget for fiscal year 2017 would be nearly $583 billion, far surpassing that of any other country.

“We will not be able to prevail in a future conflict against a great power if we don't start thinking planning, about it now and today," Scher said.

The United States military budget is more than the combined defense spending of the next eight biggest military states across the globe.