DOD gets good marks overall

The Bush administration is asking for $379.3 billion for the Defense Department in fiscal 2003 — about a 13 percent increase — with more money for unmanned vehicles, intelligent communications systems, and research and development.

A senior DOD official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Bush administration's proposal includes $27 billion for the war on terrorism. The money will primarily be used for force protection, counterterrorism and intelligence.

The budget proposal, scheduled to be delivered to Congress Feb. 4, includes $5.5 billion for "superior command, control and communications infrastructure that moves a high volume of warfighting information" and $826 million to develop a system to provide secure communications for warfighters.

The budget also allocates $1 billion for unmanned vehicles, from surveillance planes to underwater systems mainly used for mine detection.

The budget seeks $9.9 billion for science and technology research and development, which represents about 2.7 percent of the overall DOD budget, close to DOD's stated goal of 3 percent.

DOD's budget for research, development, test and evaluation (RDTE) totals $53.9 billion, a 10 percent increase over 2002 funding.

The Army is slated to receive slightly less money this year. That is because its RDTE program, the overall Army transformation initiative, is already under way and is "rolling along," the DOD official said. "It's a matter of continuing something good."