The Department of Defense (DoD) is requesting $17.2 billion in funding for science and technology (S&T) projects for fiscal year 2025, with the majority of the funding going to artificial intelligence (AI), space technology projects, integrated sensing and cyber efforts, according to the agency’s technology chief.
“If you look at where the majority of our funding is going, the biggest bar is trusted AI and autonomy. So, that’s not surprising. We [put] “There’s a lot of money going into the space technology area. The third area is integrator sensing and cyber,” Heidi Xu, assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering, said during an April 30 webinar hosted by the Defense Industrial Association.
The Department of Defense plans to fund 14 critical technology areas in FY2025, including trustworthy AI and autonomy, space, integrated sensing and cyber, integrated networked systems of systems, renewable energy generation and storage, and microelectronics. It also plans to fund human-machine interfaces, advanced materials, directed energy, advanced computing and software, hypersonics, biotechnology, quantum, and 5G/FutureG.
Of the $17.2 billion requested, 98 percent will be funded in 14 critical technology areas, with roughly two-thirds of the total going to AI, space technology, integrated sensing and cyber.
“The three areas we fund account for about 65 percent. [percent] of our science and technology budget,” Xu said.
Specifically, the budget allocates $4.9 billion for trustworthy AI and autonomy, $4.3 billion for space, and $1.9 billion for integrated sensing and cyber.
Additional technology funding includes $1.6 billion for integrated networked systems of systems, $1.5 billion for renewable energy generation and storage, $515 million for microelectronics, $458 million for human-machine interfaces, $414 million for advanced materials, $355 million for directed energy, $333 million for advanced computing and software, $242 million for hypersonics, $224 million for biotechnology, $76 million for quantum, and $38 million for 5G/FutureG.
Notably, the department’s total science and technology budget request for fiscal year 2025 is 3.4 percent lower than the budget request for fiscal year 2024. Last year, the department requested $17.8 billion.
“This is primarily driven by the fact that in terms of priority, a lot of requests have come into the 6.4 bin, rather than 6.1, 6.2 or 6.3,” Shyu said.
In other words, the decline signals a shift in DoD priorities from basic and applied research to speeding up the technology transition process to operations as the U.S. seeks to field new capabilities at scale.
During his presentation, Xu explained that funding for budget actions 6.1 Basic Research, 6.2 Applied Research, and 6.3 Advanced Technology Development only accounts for about 2 percent of the Department of Defense’s total science and technology budget request. The majority of the budget is dedicated to advanced technology development, at about $9 billion. Meanwhile, $5.8 billion is dedicated to applied research, and $2.5 billion is dedicated to basic research.
