FY 2007 Budget Request for Defense Science and Technology
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 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.