FY20 Appropriations Bills: DOD Science and Technology
OCT 09, 2019
Funding for the Department of Defense’s latter-stage R&D programs is set to continue surging past already historic highs under the House and Senate’s proposals for fiscal year 2020, though they would also pare back some earlier-stage research programs.
Spencer R. Weart Director of Research in History, Policy, and Culture
Director of FYI
The Department of Defense’s Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) budget is set to continue rising above its already record-high level under the House and Senate’s spending bills for fiscal year 2020. The House passed legislation in June proposing a 5% increase from $96 billion to $101 billion. In September, the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved a bill proposing a 9% increase to $105 billion, which exceeds the Trump administration’s request of $104 billion.
The RDT&E budget stood at about $75 billion as recently as fiscal year 2017. Its recent rise reflects DOD’s renewed emphasis on prototyping and testing as it seeks to speed the acquisition of pathbreaking weapons and equipment. Within RDT&E, the three early-stage “Science and Technology” accounts — Basic Research, Applied Research, and Advanced Technology Development — have increased more modestly over the same period, from about $14 billion to $16 billion collectively. This year, the S&T accounts are generally in line for cuts, though the Senate is proposing an increase for Basic Research.
Detailed funding proposals for the three S&T accounts and each service branch are collected in the FYI Federal Science Budget Tracker . Additional funding proposals and policy guidance for DOD can be found in the House and Senate Appropriations Committee reports accompanying their respective bills.
Basic Research
Though it is a mission-focused department, DOD funds a significant portfolio of fundamental research at its laboratories and through grants to universities. Overall funding for basic research across the department currently stands at $2.5 billion. For fiscal year 2020, the House proposes a marginal cut, while the Senate seeks a 4% increase to $2.6 billion.
In justifying an increase in basic research, the Senate report quotes testimony that Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin delivered to appropriators:
The Department of Defense has the third largest investment among federal agencies in basic research at U.S. universities, who have, through years of continued investments, been the source of many of today’s transformational technologies. Traditionally, the department has viewed the role of universities as producing the research innovation, the Department of Defense labs as the mechanism to nurture these findings and to render them defense-applicable, and the defense industrial base to integrate these new technologies into acquisition programs.
The proposals are also mixed for the service branches’ University Research Initiatives accounts, which would collectively drop 7% to $363 million under the Senate bill, while the House proposes a 7% increase. These accounts fund the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI), the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP), the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) program.
Within the basic research account, DOD also supports a variety of STEM scholarships and engagement opportunities through the National Defense Education Program. Its budget has nearly tripled over the past five years to $136 million. The Senate proposes to pare the program back to $100 million, near the amount it received in fiscal year 2018, while the House proposes an increase to $142 million.
Other R&D highlights
A 3D printing device at the Army Research Laboratory.
(Image credit – ARL)
The House and Senate bills also propose to channel resources to various high-priority technology areas, such as hypersonic missiles, 5G telecommunications, directed energy weapons, and space capabilities. Senate appropriators expressed a particular emphasis in these areas when advancing their legislation.
Hypersonics. Both chambers propose increasing resources for the development of hypersonic missiles and associated missile tracking and defense systems. However, the House report also states the committee is “concerned that rapid growth in hypersonic research has the potential to result in stove-piped, proprietary systems that duplicate capabilities and increase costs.” Accordingly, it directs DOD to “develop and implement an integrated science and technology roadmap for hypersonics and to establish a university consortium for hypersonics research and workforce development to support department efforts to expedite testing, evaluation, and acquisition of hypersonic weapons systems, and to coordinate current and future research, development, test, and evaluation programs across the Department of Defense.”
5G telecommunications. The Senate bill includes $436 million for the Next Generation Information Communications Technology program, which DOD recently created to accelerate the development of 5G communications technologies with dual civilian and military uses, facilitate industry and academic partners collaboration with DOD on 5G capabilities, and develop means of dynamically sharing spectrum in congested and contested environments. Congress permitted DOD to reprogram $34 million to set up the program this year, and the appropriation would meet the department’s anticipated funding need for the program in the year to come.
Small-scale nuclear reactor. The Senate report includes $140 million within its proposed $1.5 billion budget for the Strategic Capabilities Office to accelerate efforts to “determine the feasibility and safety of developing a transportable nuclear reactor.” The committee notes the office has already initiated studies on how such a reactor could support power needs for “expeditionary basing, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief operations” and states the extra funds are meant to “expedite efforts toward a final engineering design.”
Manufacturing science and technology. The Senate proposes to increase the Defense-Wide Manufacturing Science and Technology program budget by $49 million above the current level of $174 million, while the House proposes to pare it back to $156 million. Among other items, this account funds DOD’s contributions to Manufacturing USA, a network of public-private advanced manufacturing institutes. The Senate committee notes its support for DOD’s participation in the network but expresses concern that the department “lacks a comprehensive approach to integrating the institutes into each service’s future year’s research agenda,” requesting a briefing on a plan for “sustained investment” in the program. The Senate report also specifies that $45 million go toward manufacturing engineering education programs, up from the $5 million Congress directed last year, emphasizing priority be placed on issuing grants to community colleges and technical schools.
Precision optics. The House and Senate reports specify program increases of $7.5 million and $6 million, respectively, for precision optics activities within DOD’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Support account. The Senate report states this sector’s supply chain faces several challenges including “increased international competition from overseas suppliers, shortage of later-stage research and development investments, and a shrinking skilled workforce,” adding that “additional efforts should be made to stabilize the industry and provide for optics technician training programs in key geographical regions to ensure a future technical workforce for the industry.”
Neutral particle beams. The House explicitly rejects DOD’s request for $34 million to explore the feasibility of missile defense technologies based on neutral particle beams. Since the House bill’s release, the department has announced it is abandoning the idea.
Defense Innovation Unit. DOD requested $75 million to launch a National Security Innovation Capital program managed by the Defense Innovation Unit, which engages with commercial sector companies that do not typically interact with the department. The program would focus on dual-use, hardware-based technologies that are “severely underserved by the private U.S. venture capital industry and often funded by strategic and persistent capital from China.” While the Senate meets the request, the House would deny the additional funds, stating the proposal lacked sufficient justification.
Research security. Through a floor amendment introduced by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), the House bill includes $3 million to “strengthen efforts to secure science and technology research.” Sherrill is a sponsor of the Securing American Science and Technology Act , which would direct DOD and other federal agencies to coordinate their research security initiatives and engage with a National Academies roundtable on the subject. The bill has been incorporated into the House’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act , which is currently in conference negotiations.
