Budget: 2023 Science and Technology Budget Mixed Bag
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According to government officials, the Ministry of Defense budget for fiscal year 2023 is a major victory for research, development, testing and evaluation, especially for the science and technology part of funding. However, a closer analysis of the impact of demand and inflation reveals that the proposals are less than the budget enacted in fiscal year 2022.
The 2023 budget includes RDT & E’s $ 130 billion, 16% above the defense budget proposed in 2022. The science and technology portion (budget activity code 6.1-6.3) includes a 12% increase to $ 16.5 billion, said Defense Secretary Heidi Shu at a webinar hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association on April 20.
Shyu’s office will receive $ 1.6 billion in science and technology funding, up 21%. “So it’s a big jump,” Shyu said.
Pentagon-wide basic research will receive a $ 2.4 billion, 4% increase, and Shyu’s offices will receive a $ 244 million, 23% increase under the proposed 2023 budget. increase.
In terms of investment priorities, Shyu’s office funding is consistent with the 14 “key technology areas” she outlined in her February 1st memo.
Microelectronics — especially onshore — 5G, hypersonic, directed energy, integrated sensing, and cyber are at the top of the list based on funding.
Rear Admiral Laurin Selby, Head of Navy Research at the Navy Research Bureau, said in Webinar that one-third of the Navy’s science and technology priorities are aligned with the Navy’s key technical disciplines, the rest being the Navy. Said. center. The Navy’s science and technology priorities for the proposed $ 2.6 billion funding include unmanned systems, sonar buoys, electric laser systems, and tools to collect and integrate live and virtual training data.
“We need tools that help us focus on what humans should focus on and get machines to do what they can,” says Selby. “This is what I have doubled.”
The Air Force’s $ 3.15 billion science and technology budget is divided into 25% for Air Force priorities (military supplies, engines, aircraft power, nuclear systems, unobservable technology, etc.) and 75% for key technology areas. I am. Space Force priorities include combat force projection, information mobility, and space security.
In 2023, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is asking Microelectronics for $ 896 million. This is primarily driven by the next phase of electronics initiatives to facilitate onshore ringing. $ 414 million for biotechnology, $ 421 million for artificial intelligence, $ 184 million for cyber, and $ 90 million for Hypersonic.
The Army’s $ 2.7 billion science and technology budget focuses on six years of modernization priorities, including long-range precision fires, future vertical lifts, and soldier deaths. Among them are priority research areas such as destructive energy, hypersonic flight, autonomy, layered modeling, and synthetic biology.
“We have a world beyond 2030, so we need to look back a bit and focus on the technologies that make them possible … to find and mature the next technology,” said the office’s technology director. Jeffrey Singleton says. Of the Assistant Secretary of the Army.
Panelists emphasized efforts to expand the pool of technology partners and invest in the workforce of the future. The research and engineering office’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Program will be budgeted for $ 191 million in the 2023 proposal. Officials also noted increased funding for science, technology, engineering, mathematics education, and historically black colleges.
Selby argued that money was important, but there are structural issues that the program needs to address in order to achieve its goals and advance technology. “Part of this has to do with the fact that there are many people who have a say in what happens in these various money pots … there is no single conductor,” he said. Said.
“That is, there are multiple conductors trying to compete with each other … because we all operate under different incentives, different priorities, different budget timelines, different acquisition timelines, these opportunities I’m missing out on the left and right, “he added.
The budget proposed in 2023 represents a significant increase in science and technology funding that exceeds the president’s budget in 2022, while the proposal in 2023 is well below the budget enacted in 2022. As is often the case, Congress has allocated more than required by the 2022 budget.
For example, the $ 16.5 billion demand for science and technology funding in 2023 is more than the $ 14.7 billion required by the 2022 presidential budget, but 13 percent less than the $ 18.8 billion parliament enacted in 2022. The requirement for basic research in 2023 is 14. Percent less than the approximately $ 2.6 billion parliament enacted in 2022.
According to the 2023 proposal, the Army’s science and technology funding is nearly 37% below the enacted 2022 funding, while the Navy’s and Air Force’s funding is 18% and 13%, respectively.
DARPA, which accounts for 25% of the Pentagon’s science and technology funding, will increase by 6% from the funding enacted in 2022. This is one of the few increases in science and technology funding that exceeds the enacted 2022 budget.
Inflation will further reduce the purchase of the president’s budget in 2023, in addition to the real dollar being less than the funds enacted in 2022.
topic: Budget, R & D, science and technology
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