U.S. Military Electronic Warfare Program Funding: Background and Issues for Congress

Summary

Congress, in the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act, and the Department of Defense (DOD) has identified electronic warfare (EW) as a critical capability supporting military operations to fulfil the current National Defense Strategy. Collectively, DOD considers procurement appropriations and research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) appropriations as part of its investment accounts. Using programs identified by the EW Executive Commission (EW EXCOM), this report traces funding for three of the military services (Air Force, Army, and Navy) along with several defense agencies (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Defense Information Systems Agency, the Joint Staff, Office of the Secretary of Defense Operational Test and Evaluation, and U.S. Special Operations Command).

This report compares DOD’s funding requests for FY2019 and FY2020 to assess if DOD seeks to increase the funding of the EW portfolio (by increasing funding), decrease its funding, or keep the portfolio relatively unchanged.

Insights into EW Program Funding

This report tracks DOD funding requests for approximately 65 research and develop program elements and 30 procurement line items across FY2019 and FY2020. Reviewing these two fiscal years request allows for comparisons across the EW portfolio and provides insights into how EW was prioritized relative to the overall DOD budget. In addition to tracking funding requests in each of the respective fiscal years and identifying what Congress appropriated in FY2019, this report looks at the future years defense program (FYDP) to identify potential trends in the EW portfolio.

This report looks at the combination of the procurement and RDT&E budget requests to provide a comprehensive, unclassified overview of the total EW program requests within DOD. DOD requested at least $10.1 billion in FY2019 and $10.2 billion in FY2020 for EW, an amount analogous to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program ($10.7 billion in FY2019) or a Ford-class aircraft carrier ($12.5 billion in total ship-building procurement). Based on statements by several senior defense officials and the conclusions of the National Defense Strategy Commission, it could be expected that DOD is likely to substantially increase funding for EW programs. CRS assesses that DOD increased EW RDT&E funding by 9.7% and EW Procurement funding by 7.1% from the FY2019 request to the FY2020 request. Both portfolios increased more than the 4.9% increase in overall DOD requested funding. From a portfolio perspective, CRS assesses that the Administration seeks to increase funding by $1.48 billion in FY2021 (representing a 16.3% increase), $1.53 billion in FY2022 (a 16.9% increase), and $1.41 billion in FY2023 (a 14.8% increase).

Potential Issues for Congress

Based on this analysis, this report identifies three potential issues for Congress

Is DOD appropriately funding the EW portfolio?

How does DOD use appropriated funds for EW programs? Is DOD potentially buying new capabilities with research and development funds, when it should use procurement funding?

Does DOD understand what it is developing and procuring within the EW portfolio?