Military R&D could see decline in coming years.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: Spending Projection

* DEFENSE DEPARTMENT research and development spending is expected to level off and, then, gradually decrease through the balance of this decade.

Faced with a growing need to replenish war-ravaged equipment, "the Pentagon is looking to reduce its R&D investments, especially in applied research," said Kei Koizumi, director of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's R&D budget and policy program.

According to projections in its 2007 budget proposal, the Pentagon plans to reduce its spending for R&D from $72.5 billion this year to $71.2 billion in 2011. At first glance, that appears to be only a slight 1.7 percent reduction, but after inflation is taken into account, it is a cut of 11.6 percent from 2006, Koizumi said.

Projections call for R&D spending to continue to increase, climbing to $74.1 billion in 2007 and $75.1 billion in 2008, before topping out at $75.8 billion in 2009, he noted. However, virtually all of the new money--if it materializes--would go to develop weapons systems already in the pipeline, such as the F-35 joint strike fighter, the DDG- Zumwalt-class destroyer and the future combat system.

Only a small portion of the R&D money--less than $6 billion proposed in 2007--would go either to basic or applied research, and plans are to reduce that amount even further in coming years, Koizumi explained.

Basic research is experimental and theoretical work conducted to acquire new knowledge for its own sake. Applied research is an effort to find specific uses for that information.

For 2007, the Pentagon requested $1.4 billion for basic research, a 3.3 percent decrease from this year, and $4.5 billion for applied research, a 15 percent drop from 2006.

The decline in spending will continue beyond 2011, Koizumi said. The Pentagon's budget for basic research for that year currently is projected at $1.5 billion, a 5.6 percent decrease when inflation is considered. For applied research, funding is expected to amount to $4.5 billion. That's virtually the same figure requested for 2007, but a 22.6 percent decrease after inflation.

The result: "It's going to become much more difficult for the Defense Department to invest in new ideas for our war fighters," Koizumi said. "The technologies they will need to fight future wars--say in the 2020 to 2025 timeframe--may not be there."

After all, he said, such important innovations as the Internet, the global positioning system and precision-guided weapons all were developed as part...