Army S&T Money Focused on 'Big Six' Priorities.

AuthorHarper, Jon
PositionBUDGET MATTERS

* The bulk of the Army's science and technology investments over the next five years are slated to support its "big six" modernization priorities, as the service aims to acquire new hightech equipment in preparation for potential conflicts with peer competitors.

"We're going through a lot of change," Michael Holthe, director of lethality in the office of the deputy assistant secretary of the Army for research and technology, said recently at the National Defense Industrial Association's Armament Systems Forum in Indianapolis. "We're definitely pivoting in the Army S&T enterprise."

The service's top capability priorities are: long-range precision fires, next-generation combat vehicle, future vertical lift family of helicopters, air-and-missile defense, soldier lethality and the network.

The president's fiscal year 2019 budget request included $13.7 billion for Army S&T over the next five years, according to Holthe's slides. These initiatives are primarily focused on developing capabilities that could be fielded in the mid and far term, he noted.

The budget blueprint would allot: $940 million (7 percent) for long-range precision fires; $2.15 billion (16 percent) for next-gen combat vehicle; $1.34 billion (10 percent) for future vertical lift; $1.29 billion (10 percent) for the network/command, control, communications and intelligence; $1.25 billion (9 percent) for soldier lethality; and $537 million (4 percent) for air-and-missile defense.

Other major spending categories include: $2.33 billion (17 percent) for basic research; $804 million (6 percent) for technology maturation initiatives; $797 million (6 percent) for medical projects; and $951 million (7 percent) for the high-performance computing modernization program, or HPCMP.

"The message to industry is: the Army has set conditions, has set priorities, everybody is falling in line" including the science and technology communities and the program executive offices, said Anthony Sebasto, executive director of the enterprise and systems engineering center at the Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering...

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