The 2023 budget proposal includes $130 billion for RDT, a 16 percent increase above the 2022 proposed defense budget. The portion for science and technology — budget activity codes 6.1 through 6.3 — includes $16.5 billion, a 12 percent increase, said Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shy during a National Defense Industry Association-hosted webinar April 20.
Shy office would receive $1.6 billion in science-and-technology funding, a 21 percent increase. “So, it’s a huge jump,” said Shy.
Basic research for the entire Defense Department is nearly $2.4 billion, a 4 percent increase, and Shy office would receive $244 million, a 23 percent increase, under the proposed 2023 budget.
In terms of investment priorities, funding for Shy office aligns with the 14 “critical technology areas” she outlined in a Feb 1 memo.
Microelectronic — particularly on shoring — 5G, hypersonic, directed energy and integrated sensing and cyber top the list based on funding.
Rear Adm. Login Shelby, chief of naval research in the Office of Naval, stated in the webinar that one-third of the Navy’s science-and-technology priorities align with the research and engineering office’s critical technology areas, and the rest are Navy-centric. Some of the Navy’s science-and-technology priorities for its proposed $2.6 billion funding include unmanned systems, sonar buoys, electric laser systems and tools to collect and fuse live and virtual training data.
“We need tools that help us prioritize and focus on what the humans should focus on and let the machines do the things the machines can do,” said Shelby. “This is one I’m doubling down on.”
The Air Force’s $3.15 billion science-and-technology budget is split with 25 percent for enduring Air Force priorities — such as munitions, engines, aircraft power, nuclear systems and low observable technologies — and 75 percent for the critical technology areas. Space Force priorities include combat power projection, information mobility and space security.
For 2023, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking $896 million for microelectronics — which is largely driven by the next phase of the agency’s Electronics Resurgence Initiative to promote on shoring — $414 million for biotechnology, $412 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 longstanding modernization priorities — such as long-range precision fires, future vertical lift and soldier lethality. Within that are priority research areas, including disruptive energetics, hypersonic flight, autonomy, additive manufacturing and synthetic biology.
“There is a world beyond 2030, and so we have to really start swinging the pendulum back just a little, bit and focusing on those enabling technologies … to look and mature technologies for what’s next,” said Jeffrey Singleton, director for technology in the office of the assistant secretary of the Army.
Panelists stressed efforts to expand the pool of technology partners and invest in future workforce. The research and engineering office’s budget for Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs climbs to $191 million in the 2023 proposal. The officials also noted increased funding for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and for historically Black colleges and universities.
Shelby argued money is important, but there are structural problems that need to be addressed to ensure programs are achieving objectives and moving technology forward. “Part of this has to do with the fact that we have got many, many people that get a say in what happens to these different pots of money … there’s no single conductor,” he said.
You must be logged in to post a comment.