The Bush Administration has sent its $439.3 billion request to Congress
for the Department of Defense, a 7% increase over the current budget.
The Administration is requesting $11,083.1 million for defense science
and technology programs. This represents a decline of 16.3% or $2,158.4
million from current spending.
There was only a brief reference to DOD's science and technology programs
in the Pentagon briefing on the budget request earlier this week, and
there is no narrative description in the budget document itself. The
Office of Science and Technology Policy document, "American Competitiveness
Initiative: Leading the World in Innovation," released this week
at the OSTP briefing, states the following:
"In addition to the high-leverage research in NSF, DoE
SC, and NIST core, other Federal agencies fund important research
that makes valuable contributions toward the goals of the ACI. One
example is the Department of Defense (DoD), which provides strong
support for the physical sciences and engineering, including projects
with both commercial and military applications ("dual-use"
technologies). Past DoD research has resulted in revolutionary technological
capabilities such as radar, digital computers, wireless mobile communications,
lasers, fiber optics, composite materials, the Internet (and other
"packet switched" networks), and satellite navigation. The
President's FY 2007 Budget includes $5.9 billion for DoD basic and
applied research, $440 million, or eight percent, more than requested
in the FY 2006 Budget. (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) shares in these programs, as well as some more advanced technology
development projects beyond research.) Although the FY 2007 DoD research
budget is less than the enacted FY 2006 level, that is only the case
due to the removal of hundreds of millions of dollars in annual earmarks."
The Defense Science Board and the previous Quadrennial Defense Review
recommended that total funding for the 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3 programs be
3.0% of the total Defense Department budget (guidance which does not
appear in the just-released QDR.) The DOD appropriations bill for the
current year provides 2.96% of total funding for the three S&T programs.
The comparable FY 2007 budget request number is 2.5%, which was also
true of last year's request. The Administration did not request new
funding for existing congressional earmarks. At the OSTP briefing earlier
this week, OSTP Director John Marburger estimated that there was a billion
dollars of earmarks for defense basic research and applied research
programs in the current budget.
The below figures were provided by the Coalition for National Security
Research, to which AIP and several of its Member Societies belong. Readers
wishing detailed figures should consult the RDT&E Programs (R-1)document
at http://www.dod.mil/comptroller/defbudget/fy2007/fy2007_r1.pdf
These figures are unadjusted for inflation, and are the difference between
this year's budget (FY 2006) and that requested by the Administration.
With the exception of one Air Force and several defense-wide budgets,
all other programs would receive less funding in FY 2007.
AGGREGATE 6.1 (basic research) funding would decline 3.3% to
$1,422.0 million.
AGGREGATE 6.2 (applied research) funding would decline 13.4%
to $4,477.8 million.
AGGREGATE 6.3 (advanced technology development) funding would
decline 21.5% to $5,183.4 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding would decline 16.3%
from $13,241.5 million to $11,083.1 million.
ARMY 6.1 funding would decline 16.2% to $311.9 million.
ARMY 6.2 funding would decline 45.2% to $685.3 million.
ARMY 6.3 funding would decline 46.1% to $721.6 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE ARMY 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding would decline
42.0% from $2,961.2 million to $1,718.8 million.
NAVY 6.1 funding would decline 4.0% to $455.9 million.
NAVY 6.2 funding would decline 20.1% to $638.7 million.
NAVY 6.3 funding would decline 50.6% to $504.6 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE NAVY 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding would decline
30.4% from $2,296.3 million to $1,599.2 million.
AIR FORCE 6.1 funding would INCREASE 2.1% to $370.2 million.
AIR FORCE 6.2 funding would decline 9.1% to $973.1 million.
AIR FORCE 6.3 funding would decline 20.4% to $804.8 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE AIR FORCE 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 funding would decline
12.1% from $2,443.7 million to $2,148.1 million.
DEFENSE-WIDE (DARPA, etc.) 6.1 funding would INCREASE 9.1% to
$283.7 million.
DEFENSE-WIDE 6.2 funding would INCREASE 6.5% to $2,180.8 million.
DEFENSE WIDE 6.3 funding would decline 0.9% to $3,152.2 million.
TOTAL AGGREGATE DEFENSE-WIDE funding would INCREASE 2.3% from
$5,490.4 million to $5,617.0 million.
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