DefenseNews August 29, 2007
'Black' U.S. R&D Budget Estimated At $17.5 Billion
By Williams Matthews
Secret military research and development is expected to cost $17.5 billion in the next fiscal year — more than the U.S. Defense Department has ever spent before, according to a leading defense budget analyst.
Classified R&D will comprise 23 percent of the $75.1 billion the Pentagon plans to spend on all research and development by all of the services and defense agencies, said Steven Kosiak, director of budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
That’s the highest percentage since 1988, when secret Cold War R&D consumed 25 percent of the Pentagon’s research budget. And it’s a larger amount in inflation-adjusted terms: the $9.1 billion in 1988 is the equivalent of $16.2 billion today.
Spending on secret R&D is only part of the “black budget” the Defense Department has requested for 2008. The military also wants $14.4 billion for buying classified weapons and other equipment.
That’s 14.4 percent of the $101.7 billion procurement budget the military has requested for fiscal 2008, which begins Oct. 1.
Additional classified spending is included in a separate funding bill that would pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In all, the U.S. military wants more than $32 billion to spend on secret programs. If approved by Congress, which is virtually certain, spending on classified programs will have increased by 112 percent since 1995. By contrast, total defense acquisition has increased 77 percent during the same period.
So what’s all that money buying? It’s impossible to know for sure, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org. In the past, Pike said he was able to decipher much of the black budget through careful research. But in recent years the Defense Department has put a lot more effort into keeping classified or “black” programs truly secret.
Much of the increase is probably due to increased spending in intelligence gathering, which jumped after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Kosiak said.
“It’s hard to know how much is due to that and how much is due to true classified acquisition,” he said.
A goodly portion of the black budget is undoubtedly being spent on unmanned aerial vehicles, Pike said. UAVs are among the most rapidly developing programs in the unclassified budget and more money may be spent on them in secret than in unclassified programs, he said.
“I think some of that is intended to bewilder the Chinese,” Pike said.
One classified program is believed to be a 4,000 mile-per-hour unmanned spy plane designed to fly at 100,000 feet.
Classified R&D is also underway on hypersonic aircraft for global strike, Pike said. Pentagon documents list about seven different hypersonic programs, although it is likely that some of those programs are decoys intended to divert attention from the real efforts, he said.
The military is also working to develop small, stealthy, short takeoff and landing aircraft for delivering Special Forces and unmanned underwater vehicles for antisubmarine warfare.
Parts of the effort to build mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles is classified, as is work on Trident submarine ballistic missiles and research to counter improvised explosive devices.
Other classified R&D focuses on surveillance, explosives detection and communications systems.
A classified stealth satellite program may be killed in the 2008 defense budget.
Classified spending is concentrated in the Air Force’s budget, where 41 percent of the service’s procurement request and 42 percent of its R&D request are classified, Kosiak said.
There are two reasons for that. The Air Force acquisition budget includes funding for a number of intelligence agencies, and the Air Force launches and operates most U.S. military satellites.
The CIA’s $6 billion annual budget is hidden in a section of the Air Force’s budget labeled “other procurement aircraft,” Pike said.
The Air Force budget also provides money to the National Security Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office, Kosiak said.
But the growth in classified programs is cause for alarm among budget analysts.
“Classified spending just don’t get the same level of oversight” as non-classified spending, Kosiak said. “Even if Congress gives it some oversight, there is not oversight by members of the public” — weapons specialists, think tank analysts and others who monitor government activity for waste and abuse.
Keeping so much spending secret “diminished accountability,” Pike said. It becomes easier for program managers “to bury their mistakes, it facilitates earmarks [in which members of Congress funnel funding to pet projects] and it enables people in the Defense Department to set up little kingdoms that circumvent the normal rules,” he said.
“There are good arguments” for keeping some programs and spending classified, Pike said. “The challenge is striking a balance.” The current Congress has been disinclined to challenge many of the Pentagon’s budget requests.
“There’s no pressure to strike a balance now,” Pike said.
© Copyright 2007, DefenseNews
