Comprehensive Information on U.S. DOD Programs Supporting Uncrewed Vehicle Technologies
The analyst's research on the U.S. Department of Defense budget includes information on the funding (from the requested budget (a.k.a President’s Budget) through to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and final appropriations) for all procurement and research, development, test & evaluation (RDT&E) programs that support the development and deployment of uncrewed vehicles.
This report provides an analysis of approximately 400 RDT&E and procurement programs supporting uncrewed vehicles in the U.S. DOD for Fiscal Year 2023.
The report includes:
- Information on uncrewed vehicles and supporting technologies both deployed and under development.
- Trends and projections for future funding.
- Detailed information on specific programs developing and procuring uncrewed systems in the air, ground, and maritime surface/subsurface domains.
For accessibility, the report has been separated into three main sections:
- An introduction with some overview information on the primary funding efforts related to uncrewed systems;
- An analysis of programs that show strong growth potential in the forecasted years (FY 2024 - FY 2027); and
- Detailed information on specific procurement and research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) programs (further sectioned by the domain of operation).
- A Tableau workbook with information on all programs included in the data set along with filters to target specific subsets of data. Filters include technologies, domains of operation, specific DOD organizations, etc.
What goes into the Federal Defense Spending Report for Uncrewed Systems:
Each year, the analyst collects information on the budget for the U.S. DOD and produces a report on current trends relating to the investment in the procurement and RDT&E of uncrewed vehicle technologies. This process involves the review of initial budget justifications provided in the President’s budget request and then tracking legislation that passes that budget into law through the NDAA and Consolidated Appropriations Act.
Federal Defense Spending Report for Uncrewed Systems includes:
Written Report
Military organizations worldwide are continuing to integrate uncrewed vehicles (UxV) into their operations at a growing rate. The United States (U.S.) Department of Defense (DOD) has funded the research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) and procurement of UxV for decades, and support for these systems and associated technologies continues with the President’s most recent budget request. The President’s Budget (PB) request is released each year which includes justification documents detailing the range of technologies that will be procured and developed with that budget. Since 2013, the analyst has been tracking and summarizing that spending for our members, enabling them to make better business decisions as they position for contracts and future opportunities.
Interactive Data through a Tableau Workbook
The Tableau workbook presents the entire raw data set with the ability to filter information by categories like domains, technologies, and the DOD organization requesting funding. This allows users to conduct granular investigations based on individual topics of interest.
DOD Departments Covered include:
- U.S. Navy
- U.S. Marine Corps
- U.S. Air Force
- U.S. Army
- Chemical and Biological Defense Program (CBDP)
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
- U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM)
- Missile Defense Agency
- Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)
Target Market:
- Defense contractors
- Companies looking to initiate business with the DOD
- Business development staff and analysts looking to understand the size or growth of the market
- R&D companies looking for business opportunities
- Academics conducting research on military technologies.
Publication Frequency: Quarterly (or as justification documents and associated legislation is published)
Deliverable: Tableau dashboard and a pdf written report
Table of Contents
WRITTEN REPORT
- Introduction
- Procurement of UxV in FY 2023
- RDT&E of UxV in FY 2023
- Potential Growth Areas for UxV Technologies
- Air - Strong Growth Potential
- Ground - Strong Growth Potential
- Maritime - Strong Growth Potential
- Program Details
- UAS - Procurement
- UAS - RDT&E
- Uncrewed Ground Systems - Procurement
- Uncrewed Ground Systems - RDT&E
- Uncrewed Maritime Systems - Procurement
- Uncrewed Maritime Systems - RDT&E
- Conclusion
- References - President’s Budget Documents
TABLEAU REPORT
- Introduction
- RDT&E Structure Description
- RDT&E Funding by Category
- RDT&E Funding by Category Cross-Section
- RDT&E funding broken down into specific programs
- Procurement Structure Description
- Procurement funding is broken down into specific programs
- Funding Trends from FY 2019 - 2023
- Budget Changes Over Time for Each Program
- NDAA and Appropriations Structure Description
- Congressional changes reflected in the NDAA and Appropriations bills
Samples
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Executive Summary
Military organizations worldwide are continuing to integrate uncrewed vehicles (UxV) into their operations at a growing rate. The United States (U.S.) Department of Defense (DOD) has funded the research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) and procurement of UxV for decades, and support for these systems and associated technologies continues with the President’s most recent budget request. The President’s Budget (PB) request is released each year which includes justification documents detailing the range of technologies that will be procured and developed with that budget.
For the most recent PB request (hereafter referred to as PB23), each overarching program includes the requested funding for the next fiscal year (FY) (FY 2023), the enacted funding from the current fiscal year (FY 2022), the actual funding from FY 2021 (sometimes the amount enacted does not always match the amount used), and the projected funding for the next four fiscal years (FY 2024 - FY 2027).
This report will discuss some of the programs with the largest funding in the next fiscal year as well as some key growth areas over the next five years.
For terminology used throughout this report, overarching RDT&E efforts are classified as Program Elements (PE) which are further broken down into projects and sub-projects. Overarching procurement efforts are often called programs of record (PoR) and when referring to budget documents it may also be called a line item. For the purposes of this report, all overarching efforts are termed “programs.” While the analyst’s preferred term for the technologies referenced in this report is “uncrewed systems,” the U.S. Department of Defense continues to use the legacy term “unmanned systems” for programs of record and procurement processes. Given the focus of this report and to avoid confusion for the reader, the term “unmanned” will be used in this report when referring to official programs that use the term.
Methodology
The analyst analyzes the Federal budget from all DOD departments and agencies by reviewing their detailed justification documents as well as any relevant legislation used to enact that budget and produce a report for uncrewed systems.
