Planned FY 2018 Army Technology Investments - Part 2 Cyber Security

Following up last week’s overview of the Procurement and Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) dollars that the Army intends to invest in various technology projects in fiscal Year 2018, this week’s post takes a look at projected spending on cyber security.

Deltek conducted this analysis of the Army’s FY 2018 Procurement and RDT&E budget documentation using keywords and terms related to cyber security and information assurance. Limitations in the available data did not always allow us to isolate cyber programs, so the numbers here also reflect projected spending on programs that have cyber requirements as significant part of a larger effort.

FY 2016-2018 Overview

Expanding on the data presented last week, the chart below provides an overview of the combined Procurement and RDT&E spending that the Army is requesting for programs with a cyber-related requirement in FY 2018.

The Army expects its cyber-related Procurement funding to rise 35.2% in FY 2018 while it’s cyber-related RDT&E funding will rise 30.2%. RDT&E funding also makes up 67% of the $770M that the Army projects it will spend on cyber-related requirements in FY 2018. The number of Procurement dollars the Army dedicates to cyber has risen annually since FY 2016, reflecting the fact that it is a top priority area.

Program Details

Moving now to the program details, the table below lists all of the Army programs with an identified cyber-related requirement.

At $107.8M in projected FY 2018 Procurement funding, Communications Security (COMSEC), an integral part of the Army’s tactical and enterprise classified networks, is clearly the number one priority. This is followed by Procurement funding of $53.4M for Army Defensive Cyber Operations (DCO). DCO program funding “supports the procurement of equipment, engineering, integration, configuration management, testing, training, accreditation, and fielding of defensive cyberspace infrastructure and capabilities.” Another near-term Procurement program that has received a lot of attention is the Persistent Cyber Training Environment. Army will dedicate $4M to fund the acquisition of this system, which will eventually serve as the primary cyber training environment for all of DOD.

Concerning RDT&E priorities, the Information Systems Security Program will receive the highest funding of $132.4M, followed by Electronic Warfare Technology at $58.4M. The appearance of the latter program illustrates concerns Army officials have voiced about the nexus of EW and cyber and the Army’s vulnerabilities in that area. The next two investments: Cyberspace Operations Forces and Force Support ($56.4M) and Defensive Cyber Tool Development ($55.1M) are both related to the standing up of Army’s Cyber Mission Forces, efforts that really ramped up in the current fiscal year.

Wrapping up, growth in the Army’s spending on cyber reflects both its areas of perceived vulnerability (e.g., EW) and its contribution to the DOD’s overall improvement of its cyber security profile. Big visibility programs like the Persistent Training Environment are getting a lot of attention, but tens of millions of dollars are also going to cyber-related programs that receive little to no fanfare.