Defense FY 2024 IT and Cyberspace Activities Budget Outlook

In mid-March, the Biden Administration released its fiscal year (FY) 2024 budget request. While the Department of Defense (DoD) released limited discretionary budget information around the same time, the Pentagon held back all but the most basic details of their information technology (IT) and cybersecurity budgetary plans, until recently.

Defense IT and Cyberspace Budget for FY 2024

Two months after the initial discretionary budget release, the Department of Defense (DoD) has released their FY 2024 Information Technology and Cyberspace Activities (IT/CA) Budget Request Overview, providing general details of what they are currently spending and want to receive for both their IT and cyber-related efforts in the coming fiscal year.

In the IT/CA budget overview, DoD provides department-wide top-line numbers for the four categories that comprise their total IT budget. The Unclassified IT Budget for non-NSS represents DoD spending on IT initiatives listed within the IT Portfolio data available on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) IT Dashboard. For the remaining categories – Unclassified IT Budget NSS, Classified IT and Classified Cyber – topline numbers are all that DoD provides, which has been the most detailed information made publicly available for several years now as an increasing degree of DoD IT program information has been withheld from public view, even for unclassified IT systems.

Across the four budget categories, the DoD is requesting $58.4B for FY 2024, up 6% from the $55.1B Enacted for FY 2023 and a 10% increase from the $53.0B spent in FY 2022. It is noteworthy that Cyber progressively accounts for 20%, 21% and 23% of the total DoD IT budget for FY 2022, 2023 and 2024, respectively. (See chart below.) Over the last several budget cycles, Cyber has not exceeded 22% (FY 2020). The FY 2021 final amount came in at 18% and FY 2022 was 20% of total DoD IT.

The DoD provides some component-specific budget data as well, although not as granular nor fully aligned to the other categories. The $58.4B in FY 2024 Total IT/CA dollars are spread across Defense-wide efforts and the three military departments (MILDEPs), with the Army receiving $14.4BB (25%), Navy receiving $13.0B (28%) and Air Force getting $10.2B (16%). Defense-wide receives $20.9B (31%) of the FY 2024 total. (See chart below.)

DoD FY 2024 Cyberspace Activities Budget

The DoD sub-divides their cyberspace activities (CA) budget into three portfolios – cybersecurity, cyberspace operations, and research and development (R&D). The total CA budget for FY 2024 of $13.5B represents an increase of nearly $1.8B over the FY 2023 Enacted level of $11.7B, which itself is nearly $500M above what DoD requested from Congress in last year’s FY 2023 budget. The FY 2024 Request would also be $2.7B (+25%) and $3.6B (+37%) above the FY 2022 and FY 2021 Actual levels, respectively. (See chart below.)

The DoD further segments the Cyber Operations budget category among funding for Cyber Mission Force (CMF), US Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM HQ) and an All Other category. While the overall Cyber Operations budget sees a hefty $1.2B (+19%) increase for FY 2024 from the FY 2023 Enacted level, the funding changes fall unevenly, with CYBERCOM HQ and All Other each receiving better than 35% increases and CMF being reduced by -1.6%. As a result, the CMF budget would remain effectively flat since FY 2022. (See chart below.)

The total CA budget is the one area where DoD provides some year-to-year budget comparisons among the MILDEPs, and it is here where we see some significant changes proposed for FY 2024. DoD is proposing a whopping $2.7B (+66%) increase in the Defense-wide CA budget while reducing the Air Force and Navy CA budgets by a combined $972M and -21% and -9%, respectively. Army would get a +1% increase. That effectively places the entire $1.8B top-line increase for FY 2024 within the Defense-wide coffers while moving another $1B from the MILDEPs in the same direction. (See chart below.)

DoD gives no further detail into the budget reallocations in the IT/CA budget document. The only publicly available details into their cyber spending priorities come in their overall FY 2024 Budget Request Overview released with the main White House budget back in March. Below is a summary of the CA-related priorities that include dollar amounts:

• Cybersecurity (accounts for $3.0B of the $5.5B total request)
  • Next-gen Encryption, $1.3B
  • Network Security (Unclassified, Secret, Top Secret, etc.), $425M
  • Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) transition efforts, $890M
  • Identity, Credential, and Access Management (ICAM) Modernization, $266M
  • Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) and the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) cybersecurity programs, $148M
• Cyberspace Operations (accounts for $3.6B of the $7.4B total request)
  • Joint Cyber Mission Force (CMF) personnel, $2,9B
  • CMF Training, $98M
  • “Hunt Forward” operations, $62M
  • Improved DoDIN and Defense Critical Infrastructure (CI) investments, $174M
  • Niche cyber weapons and Indo-Pacific and European theater deterrence, etc., $161M
  • Joint Cyber Warfighting Architecture (JCWA) synchronization efforts, $158M

DoD only gives the proposed FY 2024 amounts, not any relative increases or if those dollars are begin offset by cuts to the MILDEPs, but we might assume so, given the budget changes we see above.

DoD vs. Civilian Cybersecurity

For comparison, federal Civilian departments have requested nearly $13B for cybersecurity in FY 2024, versus the $5.5B in total cybersecurity-focused budget dollars in aggregate among the four DoD components. Although some portion of the $7.4B DoD Cyberspace Operations budget would correlate to similar cybersecurity activities at Civilian agencies, we have no visibility into that proportion, so it becomes difficult to compare the two segments.

Taken together, the total FY 2024 budget for federal cybersecurity comes in at no less than $18.5B across the Civilian and Defense segments.

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For more analysis on the FY 2024 Federal Budget check out our report, FY 2024 Federal Budget Request: Priorities and Opportunities.