Defense R&D funding sees modest increase

As the rest of the US government’s fiscal year 2006 budget was being finalized by Congress in November and December, the Department of Defense budget was mired in congressional fights over a host of provisions that had little or nothing to do with defense—oil drilling in the Arctic, a ban on torture, hurricane relief, and preparations for a bird-flu pandemic. And although Congress added $50 billion to the defense authorization for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration is expected to continue funding the conflicts through multi-billion-dollar supplemental requests outside the regular budget process.

When the final DOD budget passed, the Arctic drilling provision was gone, but the other provisions remained, turning the $453.5 billion defense authorization into something of a catchall bill that includes $29 billion for Hurricane Katrina relief, $2 billion to help low-income families heat their homes, and $3.8 billion in bird-flu money.

The Katrina funding is to be paid for by a 1% across-the-board cut to the entire federal budget, with the exception of veterans’ programs. While the ramifications of the 1% cut are still being worked out, for overall federal science funding, the reduction means that already small increases just got smaller.

Department of defense

Within DOD, the overall spending for R&D saw a modest increase of 2.1% from FY 2005, to $73 billion. The administration requested a significant cut in R&D funding, but Congress moved money around in the defense request to create the slight increase. Of the 2.1% increase, according to analysts with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 82% goes to development programs, the largest of which is the joint strike fighter, which receives $4.6 billion. The Missile Defense Agency receives $7.7 billion, a 13.1% cut from last fiscal year. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency receives $3 billion, just $2 million more than last year.

The basic research funding category, known as “6.1” in Defense parlance, decreases 2.9% to $1.5 billion. The administration requested a 13% cut in 6.1 funding after last year’s 11% increase. US Army, Navy, and Air Force basic research declines, while funding for the chemical and biological defense program nearly doubles, to $94 million. University research program funding decreases 7.5% to $272 million, while the defense research science program drops 5% to $919 million.

Defense applied research funding, known as “6.2” money, increases 6.5% to $5.2 billion, instead of being cut 15% as the administration proposed. Congressional appropriators lessened the significant cuts proposed for army, navy, and air force applied research programs. Advanced technology funding, known as “6.3” money, decreased 1.9% to $6.6 billion despite the administration’s proposal to cut the funding by 16.8%.

Overall, these three main categories of defense spending make up most of the Defense Department’s science and technology programs, and this year’s S&T increase of 1.2% to $13.6 billion, although slight, is significant given that DOD requested a 22% cut in S&T money.