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Go to: -Table
A. DOD R&D by Program in FY 2007 House Appropriations -Table
B. DOD R&D by Agency in FY 2007 House Appropriations -Table
C. DOD "S&T" by Agency in FY 2007 House Appropriations -Table
D. DOEand DHS Defense R&D in FY 2007 House Appropriations PDF
version of this document Main
R&D in the FY 2007 Budget Page
Supplemental
Materials: "DOD Proposes Research
Cuts, Weapons Gains in Record-Setting 2007 Budget," AAAS R&D Funding
Update on R&D in the FY 2007 DOD Budget AAAS
Analysis of R&D in the FY 2007 Budget -
| Highlights -
R&D in the Department of Defense (DOD) would reach another record
high in the latest FY 2007 House appropriation with a $3.0 billion or 4.1 percent
increase to $76.2 billion (see Table A). Nearly
the entire increase would go to weapons development programs, but unlike in the
Pentagon request DOD support of research would also increase. -
The House would reverse sharp proposed cuts in DOD’s “Science and Technology”
(S&T) investments. Instead of a greater than 20 percent requested cut, the
House would hold DOD S&T spending near the 2006 funding level at $13.7 billion,
$2.5 billion more than the request (see Table C).
- DOD’s
support of basic and applied research would increase in the House plan, mostly
from the addition of congressional earmarks. Basic research (“6.1”) would
climb 6.3 percent to $1.6 billion (see Table A), while
applied research (“6.2”) would increase 1.6 percent to $5.3 billion. The research-oriented
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) would see its budget climb 11.2
percent to $3.3 billion (see Table B). -
The Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) would be the big winners
in the House boosts for weapons development funding. Air Force R&D would climb 10.6 percent
to $24.3 billion (see Table B), while MDA development
would surge 16.0 percent to $8.9 billion after a steep cut in 2006. DOD R&D in FY 2007 House Appropriations On
June 13, the House Appropriations Committee approved its version of the FY 2007
Defense appropriations bill (HR 5631), which funds most of the Department of Defense
(DOD). DOD, still engaged in a long and expensive war in Iraq,
continues to spend record amounts on current operations. But DOD is also investing
record amounts in the next generation of weapons; in February, Pentagon requested
$74.1 billion for DOD R&D next year, another substantial $1 billion increase
after similar increases in previous years (see Table A). But the House would add
another $2 billion to the request for a total DOD R&D appropriation of $76.2
billion, a $3 billion or 4.1 percent increase over 2006 that would again send
DOD R&D into record territory (see Figure 1), even though the 2006 total grew
just last week by nearly $1 billion. Although supplementals
normally pay for short-term needs, last week, Congress approved $62 billion in
supplemental DOD appropriations for FY 2006 (the current year), including $760
million in development funds to bring the revised 2006 DOD R&D total to $73.2
billion instead of $72.5 billion as reported in February. Although physical sciences research is a top priority for the Bush Administration
on the nondefense side of the budget, in the Pentagon
request DOD support of research would fall. DOD is the fifth largest federal supporter
of physical sciences research, with about a tenth of the federal total.
But the House would reverse proposed cuts: DOD basic research funding (the “6.1”
category) would climb 6.4 percent to $1.6 billion (see Table
A). Funding for the three-service University Research Initiatives would
receive a combined $294 million, an 8 percent increase. URI competitively awards
basic research grants to university performers. The Defense Research Sciences
program, funded in the three services and Defense Agencies, would receive a combined
$977 million, up 6.3 percent. DARPA’s Defense Research
Sciences effort would climb a substantial 30 percent to $173 million, part of
a broader increase for the agency. The relatively new National Defense Education
Program (NDEP), founded last year to encourage U.S.
students to pursue science and engineering degrees, would see its budget rise
from $2 million last year to $10 million in 2006 and up to $20 million next year
in both the request and the House plan. 
Figure
1. (click on the image for PDF) Applied research funding (the “6.2” category) would increase 1.6 percent
to $5.3 billion, a dramatic improvement over a requested cut of 15 percent. Much
of the improvement would be due to the addition of congressional earmarks that
DOD proposed to eliminate. Defense Agencies applied research would increase
by 7.6 percent to $2.2 billion, led by a 9 percent increase in DARPA “6.2” funding
and a 15 percent increase in applied research for the Chemical and Biological
Defense Program (CBDP). In a repeat of the usual pattern, the House would
restore funding for congressionally designated medical research programs that
the Pentagon proposed to reduce. Medical research programs (see Table A) in the
Defense Health Program, funded out of the FY 2007 Military Quality of Life appropriations
bill (HR 5385, already approved by the full House), would receive $444 million
in the House. These programs would award $210 million combined in 2007 for breast,
ovarian, and prostate cancer research through peer-reviewed,
competitively awarded grants, roughly the same amount as this year. Over the years,
the DOD program has become a major force in cancer research; NIH spending on these
cancers, for example, is estimated at $1.2 billion annually. There are also earmarked
research projects on medical topics, and a separate pool of $45 million for peer
reviewed grants for miscellaneous medical topics. In addition, there would be
nearly $500 million in earmarked medical research in the Army’s regular appropriation
for a total DOD medical research effort approaching $1 billion. n sharp contrast to a requested cut greater than 20 percent, the House
would preserve DOD funding of “S&T” (the “6.1” through “6.3” categories
plus medical research) at $13.7 billion in FY 2007, close to this year’s funding
level (see Table C). For every year this decade,
Congress has been far more supportive of S&T funding than the Pentagon, with
the Pentagon proposing sharp cuts each year and Congress adding billions of dollars
in the appropriations process. Advocates
of DOD S&T in the science and engineering community argue that S&T funding
is essential for building the knowledge and technology base for future DOD needs.
In the FY 2007 budget, the House agrees by sticking to the script of boosting
a declining Pentagon request.  Figure
2. (click on the image for PDF) The House 2007 appropriation keeps DOD S&T near its record-high 2005
funding level in real terms (see Figure 2). DOD S&T has increased in recent
years after hitting post-Cold War lows in the late 1990s, though it took nearly
two decades for S&T funding to return to mid-1980s levels. While this is a
relief for DOD S&T advocates, Figure 2 shows that the composition of the DOD
S&T portfolio has been changing. DOD support of basic research has increased
relatively little, and is a shrinking proportion of the DOD S&T portfolio.
While “6.2” funding has increased a little more, recent growth in DOD S&T
has come predominantly from growth in “6.3” funding of advanced technology development
rather than from research, a trend that has many DOD S&T advocates worried.
Recently, advocates have called for at least 20 percent of S&T funding to
be devoted to basic research. As Figure 2 shows, the House, by increasing basic
research more than the other categories, would reverse the longstanding trendline
by boosting the share of S&T devoted to basic research, though only to 11
percent. But
despite the good news for research programs, as usual the weapons development
effort is where the big gains would be. DOD weapons development (the non-S&T
portion of DOD R&D) would jump $3.1 billion or 5.2 percent to $62.5 billion,
led by large increases for the Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA;
see Table B). These programs, in “6.4” and higher categories in DOD’s classification
system, are devoted to engineering, development, and testing work on specific
weapons systems and are extraordinarily expensive compared to research programs.
For example, the largest single development project in DOD, and indeed the entire
federal budget, would once again be the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), funded by
the Navy and the Air Force at $4.2 billion in 2007. Much of the Air Force’s $2.3
billion increase would go to development of space and satellite communications,
new weapons systems, and classified development programs. The MDA’s efforts in missile defense systems development would
receive large increases in 2007 after a cut in 2006, rising 16.0 percent to $8.9
billion, with large increases for ballistic missile defense technologies. Led
by the MDA increase, R&D in the Defense Agencies would climb $1.4 billion
or 7.1 percent to $21.1 billion (see Table B). In addition to the 16 percent increase
for MDA, which is entirely development, there would be an 11.2 percent or $333
million increase to $3.3 billion for the research-oriented Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Slightly more than half of DARPA’s budget goes
to “6.1” and “6.2” activities, with the remainder devoted to “6.3” technology
development. Its broad research portfolio is aimed at expanding the frontiers
of knowledge and military technology to provide future solutions to DOD’s
technology needs. DARPA’s funding would increase across
the board in areas such as tactical technology, materials, network-centric warfare,
information and communications technology, cognitive computing, electronics technology,
sensors, guidance technology, and basic research, but with the notable exceptions
of cuts in land warfare technology and biological warfare defense (down $36 million
to $112 million). DARPA’s IT (information technology) research efforts would
be the biggest winners in both the request and the House: the Information and
Communications Technology “6.2” portfolio would jump 24 percent to $243 million,
and the Cognitive Computing Systems “6.2” portfolio would climb 36 percent to
$222 million. Among the other Defense Agencies, the Chemical and Biological Defense Program (CBDP)
would lose 1.6 percent of its total funding in 2007 after a large increase in
2006, but the CBDP research program would continue to expand, with $118 million
for “6.1” funding (up 25 percent) and $285 million for “6.2” funding (up 15 percent)
offsetting cuts in DARPA’s efforts in this area. Impacts of Defense R&D The
Department of Defense (DOD) is by far the largest supporter of R&D in the
federal government, accounting for more than half the total federal R&D portfolio.
Defense-related R&D is also funded by the Department of Energy (DOE), which
is responsible for maintaining the U.S.
nuclear weapons stockpile, and the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS),
whose primary mission is homeland defense but also performs biodefense
R&D related to military security (see Figure 1). Combining DOD, DHS, and
DOE contributions, total federal defense R&D would exceed $80 billion for
the first time in FY 2007 if House appropriations prevail (see Table
D), far outdistancing the $60 billion or so Congress is likely to allocate
for nondefense R&D. The 2007 House appropriation would take
DOD R&D and total defense R&D to a record high for the 11th
year in a row, with no signs of slowing down. DOD
supports a diverse group of science and engineering disciplines. More than half
of DOD’s research portfolio supports the engineering sciences, not surprising
considering the discipline’s potential contributions to DOD’s warfighting
capabilities. But DOD also invests heavily in the mathematics and computer sciences
research necessary to sustain a high-tech, IT-heavy military and in physical sciences
research. In recent years, DOD support of life sciences research has also grown,
as a result of growth in congressionally designated medical research programs
but also from DARPA and service investments in biological defense. DOD
is responsible for only 11 percent of all federal support of basic and applied
research (“6.1” and “6.2”), but is a key sponsor for several science and engineering
(S&E) disciplines (see Figure 3). DOD supports 34 percent of all federal research
in the computer sciences and a similar proportion of all engineering research,
as well as significant shares of research in mathematics and oceanography. DOD’s
impact is even greater in several engineering sub-disciplines such as electrical
engineering and mechanical engineering. DOD funds research in these disciplines
for their contributions to national defense, but this research also supports graduate
education in these fields and seeds major innovations in the civilian economy,
most evident in DOD’s early support for research that led to the now-ubiquitous
Internet. DOD is also a key supporter of social sciences research. DOD support
for these disciplines should increase in FY 2007 as a result of the House Defense
appropriations bill. A
majority of DOD’s R&D (and nearly all the work in categories “6.4” and higher)
is performed by industrial firms such as the large defense contractors Lockheed
Martin and Boeing. FFRDCs (federally funded research and development centers),
defense laboratories, and colleges and universities also perform R&D. If one
excludes DOD development, which is nearly exclusively performed by industry, DOD
basic and applied research (“6.1” and “6.2”) is performed by a diverse group of
institutions. 39 percent of DOD research is performed by DOD laboratories, while
37 percent is performed by industry. 18 percent of DOD basic and applied research
is performed by universities and colleges. All performers should benefit from
the increases in “6.1” and “6.2” funding in the FY 2007 House appropriations;
the development increases will go almost entirely to defense contractors.
 Figure
3. (click on the image for PDF) Outlook
and Next Steps The
full House will debate and likely approve the Defense bill later this week. The
Senate version of the bill, however, may not be drafted until July or later. This analysis is one of a series
of AAAS R&D Funding Updates on FY 2007 congressional appropriations. The complete
series of AAAS R&D Funding Updates, including continually updated analyses
of R&D in FY 2007 appropriations, is available on the AAAS
R&D Web Site (http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd)
in the “FY 2007 R&D” or the “What’s
New” sections.) -
June 19, 2006
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Avenue,
NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607
AAAS R&D Web site: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd
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