Pentagon said to favor 'legacy' weapons in R&D budget

Although the Pentagon's fiscal 2004 budget calls for an unprecedented investment in research and development programs, most of that money would focus on traditional "legacy" weapons systems instead of transformational technologies, a leading defense budget analyst told reporters on Monday.

President Bush has requested $380 billion for the Defense Department in fiscal 2004, about $62 billion of which would fund R&D programs. That would be a $4.3 billion increase over fiscal 2003 R&D spending, and a $20 billion increase over fiscal 2001 levels. But the question of whether the budget emphasizes the most important priorities is "debatable," according to Steven Kosiak, director of budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

"The administration has made a rhetorical commitment to transformation, and I think in some important ways they have made a few changes," Kosiak said during a Capitol Hill briefing. "But I think there's still a question as to whether we're not still too focused on the ... legacy systems."

For example, the Defense R&D budget includes $870 million for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programs, which have played a crucial role in U.S. forces' surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities in Iraq. But Kosiak said only about half of those funds would go to long-range UAVs, and the budget provides no money for long-range "stealthy" UAVs.

But the budget includes about $5.5 billion for short-range tactical fighter planes such as the F-22. Kosiak said short-range fighter planes might not be the most efficient weapons systems for future conflicts in which the U.S. military might not have guaranteed access to nearby airfields.

The Pentagon's R&D budget also includes about $10.2 billion for science and technology programs. That is an increase of roughly 10 percent over fiscal 2001 Defense S&T research. But Kosiak noted that the Pentagon's budget would increase overall R&D spending by 42 percent over fiscal 2001 levels, and R&D programs supporting missile defense would increase by 76 percent.

"A lot of people think the most critical area for transformation is in the science and technology portion of the budget, [but] funding in that category has not been raised at anything like the rate of the rest of the R&D budget," Kosiak said. "So there's some question as to whether we're really putting our money where we're likely to get the biggest bang for our buck in terms of transformation."