Army Sgt. Kyle Plumley, an intel analyst for Joint Force Headquarters out of Columbus, Ohio, works three laptop computers May 16 as part of Cyber Shield 2018 at Camp Atterbury, Ind. Cyber Shield provides a collective training event that, in part, prepares Soldiers to actively monitor for internal network threats.
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon today released its largest research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) budget request at $145 billion, including funding for major initiatives like Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2), rapid experimentation and advanced technology areas as it sharpens its focus on modernization to stay ahead of foreign adversaries.
DoD’s RDT&E budget request has been on an uptick over the past few years: In fiscal 2023, the department requested $130.1 billion in funding, a 9.5 percent increase over FY22. The FY24 request represents another 4 percent increase from FY23 levels, according to budget documents.
Although the Pentagon has not yet disclosed how much of the RDT&E funding will go into which specific programs, the department did reveal that it’s requesting some $17.8 billion for “science and technology efforts” with $9.3 billion of that going to advanced technology and $2.5 billion for basic research. It also highlighted a few key individual initiatives.
For one key effort aimed at addressing capability gaps and emerging technologies, the Rapid Defense Experiment Reserve (RDER), the department is asking for $687 million, almost double what it requested in FY23.
That effort is being spearheaded by Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu, who wants to hold two “sprints” per year of RDER to allow industry to make changes or upgrade their technology prototypes. Last October, Shyu told a small group of reporters the third sprint of RDER would focus on base defense.
For JADC2, the Pentagon’s effort to connect sensors to shooters across land, sea, air, space and cyberspace domains, the department is requesting $1.4 billion in funding. But since JADC2 isn’t a specific program or line in the budget, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how that funding will be used.
Each service has its own JADC2-aligned initiative: The Army has been conducting its Project Convergence experiments since 2020 (but there’s no sight of another round of experiments this fiscal year), the Navy has its secretive Project Overmatch and the Air Force has its Advanced Battle Management System.
In October 2022, DoD stood up a new office, the Acquisition Integration Interoperability Office, to bring all of those disparate efforts together. The Pentagon’s Chief Digital and AI Officer was also put in charge of “integrating” JADC2 data.
For another new office recently opened in the Pentagon, the Office of Strategic Capital (OSC), DoD wants $115 million, according to budget documents. The OSC was established in late 2022 in an effort to better link defense startups from development to production, essentially in order to overcome the dreaded “valley of death.”
“This is trying to connect us better with the venture capital world to get their ideas and their capabilities into our system,” Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord said today. “It’s not connecting us to the Silicon Valley Bank, but it is connecting us to that world.”
Now, two months into its establishment, the OSC is looking at ways to increase capital flows and market participation in “deep” technology areas like artificial intelligence, biotechnology and quantum computing.
DoD also wants continued funding for five key areas that “pose the most pressing threat to national security,” including $2.6 billion to address supply chain risk management and mitigating gaps in the “advanced packaging ecosystem” for microelectronics and $441 million for kinetic capabilities (including expanding or on-shoring critical chemical production and strengthening the hypersonic industrial base), according to budget documents.
The department wants $1.8 billion in funding for its various artificial intelligence initiatives. That funding will support “efforts to deliver and adopt responsible AI/ML-enabled capabilities on secure and reliable platforms, workforce development, and DoD-wide data management and modernization efforts,” according to budget documents.
Other areas include $253 million to fund the National Defense Stockpile to procure critical materials, $177 for casting and forging efforts and $125 million for expanding the domestic production for large capacity batteries, the documents say.
Cyberspace In FY24: Accelerate Zero Trust, Protect Critical Infrastructure
The budget documents also lay out requests for cyberspace activities, including security and training efforts, at $13.5 billion, an increase from $11.2 billion in FY23. That funding will go toward things like hardening DoD networks, increasing cybersecurity support for contractors and operationalizing zero trust architecture.
“The FY24 budget request affirms the department’s enduring cyberspace missions: defend the DoD information network, defend the nation and prepare to fight and win the nation’s wars,” Vice. Adm. Sara Joyner, the Joint Staff’s director of force structure, resources and assessment, said in a briefing today. “With this budget request, we will continue to modernize network defense capabilities to build a secure and resilient cyber architecture.”
The Pentagon last year released its long awaited zero-trust strategy outlining an ambitious plan to reach a “targeted” level of zero trust across the department by FY27. That plan painted a concerning picture for DoD’s information enterprise, saying it was under persistent attacks from individuals and state-sponsored adversaries like China, who “often” breach its “defensive perimeter.”
This year’s budget request also provides the commander of US Cyber Command enhanced authority over a $3 million budget to train organize, train and equip the joint cyber force, Joyner added.
According to budget documents, besides operationalizing the zero-trust framework, the $13.5 billion cybersecurity request will also fund five additional Cyber Mission Force Teams, bringing the total to 147 teams. It will also go toward advancing DoD’S “next-gen encryption solutions development and integration.”
McCord said the Pentagon is investing in buying down its technical debt, one of the DoD chief information officer’s goals.
“For those of you who remember the thread that was going around on Twitter — fix our computers — that really resonated,” McCord said. “I don’t think we had more support at any particular meeting than on investing in that. So that and investing in… our cloud computing efforts… those are examples of some of the ways we’re trying to get better inside our house here.”
