Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific illustration.

Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific illustration.

Biden Requests Less Than 1% Boost to Pentagon R&D, Despite Hyping New Defense Tech

As the Defense Department shifts its focus toward more technologically advanced potential adversaries, it will have to research and develop more and sustain less.

After a half-decade in which the Pentagon’s research budget saw larger increases, the Biden administration will request a real boost of less than one percent. 

If inflation stays around 4 percent, the Defense Department’s 2022 request for $112 billion for research, development, test, and engineering would be about 0.6 percent more than the $107 billion requested for the current fiscal year. That follows several years of larger increases in research dollars, reflecting the Pentagon’s slow but steady shift toward countering the quickly advancing capabilities of China and Russia.

“I think it's generally a good news story from an [research, development testing and evaluation] standpoint,” a senior Defense official told reporters on background Thursday. The large request reflected the challenge of “getting after the higher-end fight against a peer adversary like China and Russia...You have to really kind of make those leaps in technology. And I think, you know, this budget...certainly does put that foot forward.”

RDTE spending had grown quickly in the previous several years, according to analysis from Govini, an artificial intelligence-driven analysis firm. As enacted by Congress, DoD’s research budget was $70.6 billion in 2016, $74.8 billion in 2017, $92 billion in 2018, $96 billion in 2019, and $105 billion in 2020. If lawmakers approve the 2022 request, that would mean an inflation-adjusted increase of 43 percent over six years.

“We're in a concerted military-technical competition with a peer adversary. After 30 years of letting R&D slip, or focusing it on near-term problems, this is a clear and serious statement from the Biden administration that they are going to take the long-term competition with China seriously. In sum, hallelujah,” Govini CEO Tara Murphy Dougherty told Defense One. 

Martijn Rasser, a senior fellow in the technology and national security program at CNAS told Defense One: “This budget request shows that the White House and Pentagon are clear-eyed that mastery of emerging technologies is at the core of the geostrategic competition with China. This is an essential investment in the U.S. military’s future capabilities.”

The Defense official highlighted artificial intelligence, microelectronics, quantum science, space, cyber, directed energy, biotechnology and the hypersonics investments taking place across the Defense Department as a big part of the research and development push. That list reflects a set of modernization priorities first laid out in 2018 by the office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. They include artificial intelligence, hypersonics, space technologies, quantum science, joint, all-domain command and control, microelectronics, autonomy (as distinct from AI), cyber (including influence warfare), and biotechnology.

The office may ultimately decide to change or adjust some of those priorities. But during her confirmation hearing this week, Heidi Shyu, the Biden administration's pick to lead that office, didn’t suggest getting rid of any. She did talk up some of her priorities for the Pentagon’s R&D budget, including “artificial intelligence, hypersonics, and synthetic biology.” 

 Shyu listed as a key priority the creation of a “networked systems-of-systems that collect and share information securely, and are robust against cyber and electronic warfare threats,” a reference to the Pentagon’s ongoing joint-all domain command-and-control effort.

She said the U.S. military must use new research and engineering concepts to improve processes. The Pentagon has been experimenting with digital design and production technologies that could allow for much faster and more efficient weapons design. Those new methods include digital twinning, which the Air Force used to create a new next-generation fighter prototype in record time, an effort that they unveiled last September. 

In April, Air Force Gen. John Hyten, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggested that similar digital processes could help the Pentagon reduce the expected costs of developing big next-generation weapons programs, such as the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent. 

Shyu said the Defense Department must also develop ”secure, robust, and upgradable software” and attract new (and diverse) talent from science and technology fields. 

But the most important thing that the department can do now, she said, is shift money it spends on sustaining existing weapons toward researching and developing new technologies. 

“Today, sustainment makes up 70% of total weapon system cost, with development and procurement making up 30%,” she told lawmakers. “DoD should strive to flip this ratio and invest more in the development of new technologies than it does in the sustainment of legacy systems.”

The new money for research and development will help. But questions remain, such as the willingness of defense contractors to put forward more of their own money into developing new technologies. A Government Accountability Office, or GAO, report from last September showed that while defense contractors make big claims about the money they put forward into independent research, GAO’s analysis showed that “the majority (67 percent) of IR&D projects completed between 2014 and 2018 focused on incremental, rather than disruptive, innovation.” 

Tara Copp contributed to this report.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.