Flat 2021 DOD budget may limit new technology development like hypersonics and artificial intelligence (AI)
WASHINGTON – As the US and Iran teeter on the precipice of war, the Trump administration is expected to unveil a $740 billion fiscal 2021 Pentagon budget, a number essentially flat from 2020’s $738 billion signed into law by the president just last month. Breaking Defense reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
17 Jan. 2020 -- The new number, agreed to in July as part of a two-year budget deal, likely would leave the armed services with little wiggle room as they try to design and build critical modernization projects such as hypersonics and artificial intelligence (AI).
The budget request, slated to be unveiled February 10, comes as the Pentagon says it needs more money to keep ahead of China and Russia as those powers, unburdened by two decades of grinding and expensive wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan, push forward on naval, space and cyber weapons.
Overall, the 2021 DOD budget “will force the services to make trade-offs between force structure, readiness, and modernization that they haven’t yet been confronted within the Trump administration,” says Andrew Hunter, director of the Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
