Budget Analysis: Air Force Cyber-Related Program Budgets in FY 2022

As Fiscal Year 2022 fast approaches many in the federal contracting market are keenly interested in what federal agencies – especially the Department of Defense (DOD) and the military departments – plan to spend on high-priority technology initiatives. Cybersecurity is near the top of that list for many.

Each year, GovWin’s Federal Market Analysis (FMA) team analyzes the Department of Defense (DOD) Procurement and Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) budget requests to identify major technology areas where the defense components intend to invest. We conduct this analysis by using keywords that help us identify cloud computing, big data analytics, cybersecurity/cyberwarfare, and other technologies.

This analysis reveals that the Air Force requested a total of more than $1.4B for programs that either directly address DOD cyber mission capabilities – both defensive and offensive – or support their underlying mission support capacities. This number is up from roughly $1.0B enacted in FY 2021 and $900M spent in FY 2020. (See chart below.)

Largest Air Force Cyber-Related Programs

The five largest programs with cyber-related budgets that FMA could identify account for more than $800M in Air Force’s FY 2022 Procurement and RDT&E budget requests. As such, it is likely that at least some of the work involved in these programs could be available to contractors if a contract for it is competed. Some elements of these programs may represent new or expanding efforts. (See chart below.)

Acquisition Workforce-Cyber Network & Business Systems: This program funds the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) civilian workforce in the Business and Enterprise Systems Program Executive Office and the Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence Program Executive Office. This program supports all phases of acquisition programs including material solution analysis, technology development, engineering and manufacturing development, production and deployment, and operations and support. In FY 2022, the program reorganized and consolidated related program element (PE) funding under this program to support operations and capability integration.

Cyber Operations Technology Support: This program supports the US Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) mission to develop and expand infrastructure architectures and capabilities/tools in four broad program areas: Joint Common Services, Joint Access Platforms, Joint Weapons, and Joint Sensors. In FY 2022, the program will continue the development of the USCYBERCOM’s Joint Cyber Warfighting Architecture (JCWA), complete a technology refresh and upgrade of the Security Operations Center (SOC) , continue to enhance and sustain common service exploitation frameworks supporting operations, work towards consolidation of Advanced Frameworks for cyber operations, situational awareness, and risk assessment and mitigation into a multiple-purpose solution in Unified Platform, and incorporate new advanced risk management tool.

C3 Countermeasures: The program supports AF Distributed Cyber Warfare Operations and AF Defensive Cyberspace Operations, including Cyberspace Vulnerability Assessment/Hunter (CVA/H), Computer Security Assistance Program (CSAP) Countermeasures, Cyber Defense Analysis (CDA), Weapon System Cyber Response (WSCR), and the Air Force Cyberspace Defense Weapon System (ACD). FY 2022 investments include system hardware and software refresh as well as new hardware and software to enhance operations, combat evolving cyber threats, improve enterprise logging and data security, equip cyber hunting capabilities, and support increased training capacity.

Unified Platform (UP): Unified Platform provides U.S. Cyber Mission Forces, U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM), and other Service cyber components with a Joint cyber operations infrastructure as part of USCYBERCOM (JCWA) Joint Cyber Warfare Architecture. FY 2022 plans include continuing to integrate existing service capabilities, develop new capabilities, and modernize existing infrastructure.

Joint Cyber Command and Control (JCC2): This program provides Combatant Commanders, Joint Force Commanders and Service Component Commanders with enhanced situational awareness and battle management for cyberspace operations missions and forces. In FY 2022, the program will incrementally expand and develop JCC2 capabilities using the DevSecOps approach, continue to integrate and expand existing situational awareness and battle management capabilities to the JCC2 solution, and expand the backlog of requirements through Joint Working Groups and the JCC2 Governance Process.