Both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have
completed their work on the FY 2003 authorization bills. The
House bill has cleared the floor. Following Senate floor
action, differences between the two bills will be resolved in
a conference.
The defense authorization bill sets important markers for the appropriators
in their writing of the FY 2003 funding bill. The figures below represent
proposed changes in funding from the current budget. Excerpts from the
House and Senate committee reports pertaining to the overall level of
spending on S&T follows the figures. The reports contain many specific
references to particular research programs, and can be accessed under
Committee Reports at: http://thomas.loc.gov/
Note that in the figures below, "Defense-Wide" spending is
NOT aggregate spending, which is listed first. Defense-Wide programs
refer to DARPA and other defense labs.
AGGREGATE 6.1 (basic research) funding: House down 1.6%;
Senate up 2.7%
AGGREGATE 6.2 (applied research) funding: House down 6.3%;
Senate down 2.8%
AGGREGATE 6.3 (advanced technology development) funding: House
up 9.4%; Senate up 8.0%
TOTAL AGGREGATE 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding: House up 1.4%;
Senate up 2.8%
ARMY 6.1 funding: House up 2.6%; Senate up 7.8%
ARMY 6.2 funding: House down 23.3%; Senate down 19.6%
ARMY 6.3 funding: House down 7.4%; Senate down 2.3%
TOTAL AGGREGATE ARMY 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding: House down
13.3%; Senate down 8.8%
NAVY 6.1 funding: House up 1.7%; Senate up 3.7%
NAVY 6.2 funding: House down 15.8%; Senate down 21.6%
NAVY 6.3 funding: House down 6.7%; Senate down 23.2%
TOTAL AGGREGATE NAVY 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding: House down
8.5%; Senate down 17.3%
AIR FORCE 6.1 funding: House down 0.9%; Senate down 3.1%
AIR FORCE 6.2 funding: House up 1.2%; Senate down 4.8%
AIR FORCE 6.3 funding: House up 38.6%; Senate up 1.8%
TOTAL AGGREGATE AIR FORCE 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding: House up
14.6%; Senate down 2.2%
DEFENSE-WIDE 6.1 funding: House down 6.4%; Senate up 2.1%
DEFENSE-WIDE 6.2 funding: House up 4.3%; Senate up 16.4%
DEFENSE WIDE 6.3 funding: House up 15.5%; Senate up 27.5%
TOTAL AGGREGATE DEFENSE-WIDE funding: House up 8.5%; Senate up
20.1%
HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE REPORT 107-436 ACCOMPANYING H.R.
4546
"The budget request contained $9,677.2 million for defense
science and space technology, including all defense-wide and
military service funding for basic research, applied research,
and advanced development. The committee notes that this
amount represents an increase of $919.5 million, or 10.5 above
the amount requested for the fiscal year 2002 budget, and 2.7
percent of the budget request. However, the committee also
notes that the amount requested for science and technology is
a decrease of $199.3 million from the amount provided by
Congress for fiscal year 2002. The committee commends the
Department of Defense commitment to a goal of 3 percent of the
budget request for the defense science and technology program
and progress toward this goal.
"The committee views defense science and technology
investments as critical to maintaining U.S. military
technological superiority in the face of growing and changing
threats to national security interest around the world, and
believes that both the defense agencies and the military
departments have vital roles in DOD's science and technology
investment strategy. Defense agencies focus on science and
technology specific to the particular agency or, in the case
of DARPA, on problems of national-level problems, operational
dominance, and exploitation of high-risk, high-payoff
technology. The military departments' science and technology
programs focus on the development and transition of more
mature technologies into future weapons systems.
"The committee notes that the defense-wide science and
technology account increased over 14 percent while the Air
Force account increased over 5 percent and the Army and Navy
science and technology accounts each decreased more than 21
percent (over $400 million each). Although the committee is
pleased with the overall progress in the defense science and
technology program, the committee continues to be disturbed by
the continuing trend of overall reduction in the military
departments' science and technology program in comparison to
significant increases in the Defense-wide science and
technology account and in the amount budgeted for the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), in particular. The
committee concern is not directed at the content of the DARPA
program, but rather on the Department's continuing trend of
placing higher priority on defense agency science and
technology programs at the expense of the already inadequate
service research and development budgets. The committee
believes that the Department has not provided sufficient
justification to support these imbalances in funding levels
between defense agencies and the services, and, therefore,
recommends correcting these imbalances by reductions in the
DARPA accounts that appear to show disproportionate growth and
distribution of those funds among service science and
technology projects."
SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE REPORT 107-151 ACCOMPANYING S. 2514:
"The committee supports Department of Defense efforts to
transform itself to meet the emerging threats of the 21st
century. The committee feels that a robust defense science and
technology program is a requirement in order to develop the
new systems and operational concepts that will enable
transformation. Unmanned vehicles, satellite communications,
and precision weapons are transforming today's military. In
the same way, new systems based on nanotechnology, robotics,
and artificial intelligence will transform the military of the
future. To ensure that each wave of technological change is
sustainable and can be expanded upon, however, it is critical
to make the small but stable investments in fundamental and
applied research that produce the capabilities of the future.
"The committee fully supports the Department's stated goal of
investing 3 percent of the defense budget into science and
technology programs. The fiscal year 2003 budget request fell
short of that goal. In fact, the budget request would decrease
the percentage of the budget invested in science and
technology each consecutive year, falling to 2.3 percent of
the budget by 2007. The committee urges the Department and
each of the military services to achieve the 3 percent goal as
soon as practicable.
"To support the transformation of the military, the committee
recommendations would provide over $170.0 million for high
priority science and technology programs above the amount
requested in the fiscal year 2003 budget. This includes over
$200.0 million in research to support the development of the
Army's Objective Force, with new technologies such as unmanned
ground vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and next generation
weapons systems. The committee recommends adding $23.5 million
to research programs to address corrosion problems in
platforms, weapons systems, and installations. This research
could eventually save the Department billions of dollars per
year in corrosion maintenance and repair costs.
"The committee recommendations would provide an additional
$33.0 million for revolutionary research and technology to
meet future cyberthreats. The funding would include extensive
investments in scholarship programs to train the next
generation of information security specialists. The committee
notes that a limiting factor to technological transformation
will be the ability to generate and deliver power on demand to
critical military assets. For this reason, the committee
recommends an increase of $41.0 million in research and
development on revolutionary power technologies.
"The committee recommendations would also provide an
additional $34.0 million for nanotechnology investments. This
burgeoning scientific field has the promise to transform
technologies ranging from power systems to aerospace materials
to biological sensors. In addition, the committee
recommendations increase Department investments in basic
research by nearly $50.0 million. These fundamental research
programs are often performed in collaboration with
universities and national laboratories and help serve to train
tomorrow's scientific leaders.
"In addition to these investments, the committee continues to
work to ensure that the Department gets the best return on
investment on research dollars. The committee recommendations
would provide an additional $25.0 million for the Department's
technology transition activities as well as establish a new
funding mechanism and coordinated process for rapid transition
of technologies from the laboratory to the battlefield.
"The recommendations for authorization of appropriations for
fiscal year 2003 would continue the committee's tradition of
strongly supporting the defense science and technology
enterprise. By supporting strong research investments,
strengthening our defense laboratories, and working to speed
transition of technologies into operational systems, the
committee hopes to continue and accelerate the transformation
of the military."
Enlarge text
Shrink text
Print
E-mail
Digg this
Del.icio.us
Furl