Taking Measure of Science and Technology Funding.

• Author: Carberry, Sean

While Defense Department budgets have ebbed and flowed this century, there has been relative consistency in one category: science-and-technology funding.

According to a June white paper from the National Defense Industrial Association's Emerging Technologies Institute, Defense Department science-and-technology funding requests averaged $14.6 billion in real terms between fiscal years 2003 through 2015.

The report, "Investing in the Future: Trends in the Defense Department's Science and Technology Funding," stated that funding for science and technology has climbed steadily in recent years, corresponding with the department's Third Offset strategy, the end of the Budget Control Act and the 2022 National Defense Strategy.

"Because the purpose of the [science-and-technology] portfolio is to lay the groundwork now to counter threats in the very long-term, this increase in funding indicates that DoD foresees long-term competition with great powers who are deeply invested in their own science and technology," the report stated.

In other words, China has been making strides in developing new weapons, systems and materials, and the United States needs to keep pace with basic research, applied research and advanced technology development, collectively referred to as science and technology.

The Defense Department requested $16.5 billion in science-and-technology funding for fiscal year 2023, and Congress appropriated $22.4 billion. That is another trend highlighted in the report, which stated that since 2014, bipartisan majorities in Congress have plussed up the science-and-technology request from presidents of each party.

In fact, it's a wink-and-nod routine. The Defense Department underfunds science and technology in its annual request because Congress will add more--typically after berating department officials in hearings for underfunding it.

The department's 2024 request is $17.8 billion. While far from official or final, a June 12 House Armed Services Committee's chairman's mark of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act included $18.2 billion for science and technology.

While that is more than the department's request, it is $4.2 billion less than Congress appropriated for 2023. That could be a function of the debt ceiling deal, which capped defense spending at $886 billion. That is $6 billion more than the department requested, meaning Congress has less loose change to spread around in 2024.

Still, the committee's proposal --should it...