Research programs funded by the Defense Department would fare relatively well under the FY2019 Defense spending bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The report that outlines the spending details for the bill is available here.
In the report, the committee calls out the importance of basic research in the defense enterprise. The report reads, in part:
Basic Research.—The Committee understands that basic research is the foundation for Department of Defense innovation and future technologies. As the Under Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering) recently testified before the Committee: ‘‘The Department of Defense has the third largest investment among Federal agencies in basic research at U.S. universities, who have, through years of continued investments, been the source of many of today’s transformational technologies. Traditionally, the Department has viewed the role of universities as producing the research innovation, the Department of Defense labs as the mechanism to nurture these findings and to render them defense-applicable, and the defense industrial base to integrate these new technologies into acquisition programs.’’ Accordingly, the Committee recommends a total basic research investment of $2,798,456,000, an increase of $529,280,000 above the fiscal year 2019 budget request. This includes an additional $125,000,000 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Army; $125,000,000 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Navy; $125,000,000 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Air Force; and $100,000,000 in Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide.
The Basic Research portfolio would be divided up in the following manner:
- Army: $582.6 million
- Navy: $737.9 million
- Air Force: $642.8 million
- Defense-wide: $835.1 million
Funds for the Applied Research portfolio would be allocated in the following manner under this bill:
- Army: $1,166 billion
- Navy: $1,027 billion
- Air Force: $1,430 billion
- Defense-wide: $1,953 billion
As noted above, additional details are available in the report.