Funding for some of the Pentagon’s top technology research priorities will remain flat or decrease slightly in fiscal 2025, according to the latest defense spending plan.
The Defense Department is seeking $143.2 billion in research and development money for the next fiscal year, according to documents released March 11. That’s down from last year’s $145 billion request – the department’s biggest innovation and modernization.
Acting Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said restrictions imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 are responsible for the somewhat smaller spending outlook. He told reporters during a briefing that the Pentagon was doing everything it could to maintain funding for key technology bills.
“Even below the FY25 cap, we continue to invest in basic research, advanced technology, experimentation, artificial intelligence, and cyber and space capabilities.” Hicks said.
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The request includes $1.4 billion for Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or CJADC2, and $1.8 billion for AI. Both figures are consistent with the FY24 plan.
The CJADC2 concept envisions land, air, sea, space and cyber forces working together to outmaneuver and outsmart technology-savvy adversaries. Automation and artificial intelligence are fueling this, with the Chief Digital and AI Office helping to deliver the required information analysis and database connectivity.
Mike McCord, the Pentagon’s comptroller, on Monday told reporters that artificial intelligence is embedded in “so many things” that it is difficult to easily produce a detailed analysis of investments.
“It’s a little hard to put your hands around, and so the number doesn’t necessarily reflect the impact of it, the fact that it’s in so many places,” McCord said. He promised to provide an accurate inventory as soon as possible.
The Defense Department is juggling more than 685 AI-related projects, including many linked to major weapons systems, according to the Government Accountability Office, a federal watchdog.
Elsewhere, the department reduced its request for the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve, an effort to meet high-priority needs in advanced technology capabilities, by more than $200 million.
That cut, which brings RDER funding to about $450 million, comes as the Pentagon prepares to transition its first projects to military users. The department is awaiting FY24 funding, which Congress has yet to approve, before it can build and implement systems. Those capabilities are largely classified, although the DOD has confirmed that the first round of projects is focused on long-range fires in the US Indo-Pacific Command.
INDOPACOM’s responsibilities include North Korea and China.
Also included in the department’s request is $144 million for the Office of Strategic Capital — a jump from last year’s $115 million bid. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin created the OSC in 2022 to draw private sector funding toward the military’s most needed technologies.
The office released its first investment strategy earlier this month, highlighting sectors such as biotechnology, services and systems that support space, quantum sensing and battery storage as areas of initial priority.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. Covers the US military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. He has addressed some of the DoD’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.
Colin Demarest is a reporter at C4ISRNET, where he covers military networks, cyber and IT. Colin previously covered the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration – specifically Cold War decommissioning and nuclear weapons development – for a daily newspaper in South Carolina. Colin is also an award winning photographer.
Read the original at Defence247.gr
