Big Data in DOD’s FY 2021 Procurement and RDT&E Budget Programs

Key Takeaways

• DOD’s FY 2021 budget request for Procurement and RDT&E programs with big data-related work totals $2.8B.
• Investment in Procurement programs will fall from $460M in FY 2019 to $385M in FY 2021.
• Planned RDT&E investment will rise by approximately $400M from FY 2019 to FY 2021.

Applied to many different types of work, advanced analytics, modeling and simulation, and related services are being used across the Department of Defense. This week’s post takes a look at proposed investment in programs that use big data technology in the FY 2021 Procurement and Research, Development, Test, and Enhancement (RDT&E) budgets. DOD is expected to publish a new data strategy soon, which may clarify the types of areas where analytics will be applied in the future. Until then the information identified by Deltek can provide insight into the organizations that plan to spend the most.

The data discussed here comes from a keyword analysis of the DOD’s FY 2021 Procurement and RDT&E budget documents. The budgets for identified programs investing in big data technology in one way or another have been included in the numbers presented. Readers please note that the lack of granularity in defense budget reporting precludes us from seeing exactly where the funding related to big data will go. The best we can do is show the budgets of programs with big data-related  work and describe the work required. The numbers presented also include Base and Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding.

The chart below shows that the total budgets for programs with big data-related work will rise approximately 10% from FY 2020 to FY 2021, growth that is consistent with recent trends at DOD.

Procurement

Investment in Procurement programs will fall in FY 2021.

The five Procurement programs that will see the highest investment in FY 2021 are as follows

• Distributed Common Ground Systems – Army: $200M
• High Performance Computing Modernization Program (Army): $68M
• Distributed Common Ground Systems – Air Force: $35M
• Distributed Common Ground Systems – Navy: $18M
• Weather Observation Forecast (Air Force): $11M

Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E)

Here are the proposed RDT&E budgets for DOD programs with a big data component. Budgets planned under this category will rise strongly compared to Procurement.

The five RDT&E programs that will see the highest investment in FY 2021 are as follows

• Cyber Security/ Information and Communications Technology (DARPA): $236M
• Tactical Electronic Surveillance System – Advanced Development (Army): $195M
• Ballistic Missile Defense Enabling Programs Modeling and Simulation (Missile Defense Agency): $108M
• Biomedical Technology (DARPA): $107M
• Next Generation Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) (U.S. Space Force): $69M