Pentagon requests $30B for IT

President Bush requested a 4.9 percent increase in military information technology spending for next year in his fiscal 2006 budget proposal to Congress this morning.

Defense Department leaders requested $30.1 billion in IT funding in 2006, a $1.4 billion increase from the $28.7 billion they received for 2005, according to a Feb. 4 industry presentation.

Pentagon officials requested $419.3 billion for the department for 2006, a 4.8 increase from the $400.1 billion submitted in 2005. They requested $127.5 billion for the Air Force, $125.6 billion for the Navy, $100 billion for the Army and $66.2 billion for defense agencies, according to the "President Bush's Fiscal Year 2006 Defense Budget" presentation given by DOD leaders to media Feb. 4.

"The budget reports priorities established by Secretary Rumsfeld to fulfill the President's pledges to defeat global terrorism, restructure America's armed forces and global defense posture, develop and field advanced warfighting capabilities, and take good care of our forces," said DOD officials in the eight-page document.

Programs that transform the military's warfighting, communications and management received substantial requests for funding for 2006. Army officials, for example, requested $3.4 billion for the Future Combat System, a $600 million increase from the $2.8 billion submitted for 2005 for the service's next generation of manned and unmanned air and ground vehicles.

DOD officials also requested $1.2 billion for the Advanced Extremely High Frequency Satellite Communication System, with the first launch scheduled in 2008, and $836 million for the Transformational Satellite Communications System, with the first launch scheduled for 2013. They also said they would speed implementation of the National Security Personnel System, with an additional 300,000 civilian employees planned to join the system in July.