Defense Budget and Acquisition

As the Department of Defense adapts to the challenges of a changing world, it has important choices to make about the future mission and organization of the Defense Information Systems Agency, the organization created in the Cold War to unify its top-level communications.

This paper is part of U.S. Military Forces in FY 2022. Military forces include the Space Force, Special Operations Forces, DOD civilians, and contractors.

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.

The Pentagon’s 2022 budget request seeks, but does not yet achieve, the necessary alignment of missile defense and defeat investments to support long-term strategic competition.

The Air Force continues developing and procuring next-generation aircraft to meet the demands of great power conflict. Fielding new aircraft has slowed the increase in fleet age, but the Air Force is not buying enough new aircraft to sustain current force levels.

The Marine Corps continues a major restructuring to develop capabilities for great power conflict in the Pacific after two decades of conducting counterinsurgency operations ashore. The budget cuts units and personnel to pay for these new capabilities.

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.

The Biden administration’s emerging fleet plan incorporates smaller ships and large numbers of unmanned systems, as proposed by many strategists, but high costs, production limitations, and congressional opposition may prevent full implementation.