2016 DOD budget for communications, electronics, and intelligence headed up after two flat years
WASHINGTON, 5 Feb. 2015. U.S. military electronics spending appears to be headed back up next after two years of modest funding levels. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is asking Congress for $11 billion in fiscal 2016 for procurement and research in military communications, electronics, telecommunications, and intelligence (CET&I) technologies.
The Pentagon's 2016 CET&I request is up 13.4 percent from the $9.7 billion that Congress allocated for these accounts for this year. The Pentagon released its 2016 DOD budget request this week.
The $11 billion request for communications, electronics, telecommunications, and intelligence equipment and research is the highest in at least two years. These accounts contained $15.1 billion as recently as fiscal 2012.
The DOD request for CET&I procurement and research does not include military activities with substantial electronics content, such as aircraft avionics, vetronics, and missile guidance; when these are added, DOD spending levels for military electronics and defense electro-optics next year could approach $90 billion, industry analysts believe.
Related: Military spending for electronics and communications stable after steep decline
The DOD's CET&* budget request for fiscal 2016, which begins next October, includes $7.9 billion for procurement, which is up nearly 18 percent from this year's congressional enacted level of %6.7 billion.
The proposed budget also requests $3.1 billion for CET&I research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E), which is up 3.5 percent from this year's enacted level of $2.97 billion.
Highlights of the Army's CET&I 2016 budget request include $783.1 million for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T); $118.1 million for the Defense enterprise Wideband Satellite Communications Systems; $103 million for the Installation Information Infrastructure Modernization program; and $314.4 million for the Distributed Common Ground System - Army (DCGS-A).
Related: Military spending for communications and electronics down one-fourth over two years
Highlights of the Navy's CET&I request include $103.2 million for the AN/SQQ-89 surface anti-submarine warfare combat system; $214.8 million for attack submarine acoustics; $146.97 for the Fixed Surveillance System wide-area sonar; $148.2 million for shipboard information warfare exploitation; $279 million for the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) program; and $118.1 million for the Navy Multiband Terminal (NMT).
The Air Force CET&I request includes $140 million for strategic command and control; $43 million for general information technology; and $92.4 million for base communications infrastructure.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
