Research, development and technology in the US Army's 2022 budget

Bayanalysis - The U.S. Army 2022 budget request focused on the vision to build a lethal, resilient, agile, and ready force. Renewing and maintaining technological edge in the face of near-peer competitors is critical to the future security of the United States and its allies.

The U.S. Army 2022 budget request underscores the Secretary of Defense's commitment to innovating and modernizing the U.S. military with a research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E) budget totaling $112 billion.

This is the most demand ever by the department and an increase of more than 5 percent over the 2021 fiscal year.

The Department has a long-term commitment to pursuing innovative ideas that will protect our nation and keep our forces safe.

The U.S. Army relies on Science and Technology (S&T) to research and develop cost-effective technology solutions to the challenging problems our war fighters face in complex and ever-changing environments against an increasingly diverse range of threats.

The US Army's 2022 science and technology budget request is $14.7 billion, which is $615 million more than the Department's request for fiscal year 2021 for an ongoing focus in science and technology to pursue innovative, affordable, and versatile solutions to ensure our military remains the most capable military in the world. See Figure 3.1.

Highlights of the US Army's 2022 budget request for science and technology:

Maintaining has requested $2.3 billion in Funding for its Basic Research Program, which supports high-risk, high-return basic research projects in the physical sciences, life sciences, and applied mathematics that explore the limits of today's technologies and discover new phenomena and knowledge that ultimately lead to the department's future technologies.

Investments in the department's traditional areas of interest and emerging fields such as artificial intelligence/machine learning, quantum science, neuroscience, new engineering materials, understanding human and social behavior, engineered biology, and manufacturing science are expected to generate long-term value.

Basic research programs help develop the workforce of the future through training in areas critical to management, as well as fostering a community of American experts to mitigate technological surprise.

Applied research and advanced technology development make up 84 percent of science and technology funding, consistent with the department's practices over the past three decades to underscore the transition of new technology to acquisition programs.