Defense Budget Analysis

This study measures Congress’s impact on defense acquisition funding by comparing actual funding levels for procurement and RDT&E accounts with the original levels proposed in the Defense Department’s budget request and identifies trends in congressional actions.

This report assesses the Biden administration’s FY 2022 defense budget request. It outlines the priorities and potential effects of ongoing strategic reviews, tracks current congressional action on FY 2022 defense appropriations, and identifies key issues for FY 2023.

As Congress begins debating budget processes in DoD, it will need to assess the processes for utilizing approved budgets, or budget execution. This report provides a history and assessment of DoD budget execution processes and offers recommendations to improve them.

This paper draws on lessons from previous attempts to improve battle network integration and explores how DoD can properly scope the problem and organize itself to effectively and efficiently acquire the systems needed to realize its vision for JADC2.

Remotely crewed systems play an important role for ISR in contested spaces. This brief examines DoD's investment, comparing budget and strategy. The Air Force led early in remotely crewed systems, but has reduced its investment while spending on maritime systems increased.

While today’s military is near its smallest size since the end of World War II by almost all measures, personnel costs are at historically high levels. This CSIS report examines trends in military personnel costs and key drivers of growth over the past several decades.

An integrated battle network has been a major focus area for the DoD and Congress for years. This brief examines the importance of battle networks to modern military operations and presents a framework of five functional elements that make up a battle network.