Budget Analysis: Defense Agency Cloud-Related Budgets in FY 2022

Published: September 29, 2021

Federal Market AnalysisBudgetCloud ComputingDEFENSEForecasts and SpendingInformation Technology

Analysis of the DOD’s fiscal 2022 budget request shows that the Department of Defense’s Fourth Estate has requested $1.5B for programs leveraging cloud technology.

Key Takeaways

  • Defense Agencies have requested $1.5B for programs leveraging cloud computing in fiscal 2022.
  • The Office of the Secretary of Defense requested the highest funding for cloud-related work out of all the Fourth Estate.
  • Cloud-related work covered by the request includes weapons testing, capability delivery, and migration/transition services.

Fiscal Year 2022 is upon us. Every 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 department intends to invest. We conduct this analysis by using keywords that help us identify cloud computing, big data analytics, cybersecurity/weaponry, and other technologies.

This analysis reveals that Defense Agencies, otherwise known as the Fourth Estate, requested a total of $1.5B for programs that either use or prepare for the use of cloud technology. This number is up from $1.4B requested for FY 2021 and $900M requested in 2020.

Identifying the specific cloud spend in each program is impossible due to the vague way that the DOD reports budget request data. Readers should keep in mind, therefore, that the numbers presented here are the requested budgets for agencies and programs that plan to use cloud technology for a specific purpose (e.g., storage, testing, or delivering a capability, etc.). The numbers presented here should not be considered the Fourth Estate’s entire cloud budget for FY 2022. They are best thought of as a signpost indicating how and where Defense Agencies intend to use cloud and the potential amounts they could spend on it.

Requested Cloud-Related Budgets by Agency

The chart below lists the agencies that requested FY 2022 funding for programs with a cloud component.

The presence of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) at the front of this chart may come as some surprise given the small size of the office. The OSD, however, runs the DOD’s R&D enterprise and more program offices are turning to cloud platforms as a way of providing the computing power (IaaS), software capabilities (SaaS), and testing (PaaS) required for R&D projects. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) follows OSD in terms of its total cloud-related requested budget, which makes sense given that the agency provides milCloud capabilities to the rest of the DOD. 

Largest Programs

Here are the five largest programs with cloud-related budgets that FMA could identify. Because the totals shown are from the Procurement and RDT&E budget requests, it means that the work involved could be new and available to contractors if a contract for it is competed.

Program Details

Access to State-of-the-Art (SOTA) Microelectronics - Development/Secure Design and Quantifiable Assurance Development (OSD): This program verifies the ability to fabricate classified and/or export-controlled designs in on-shore commercial foundries and to quantify the integrity of designs and end products, including authentication and identification. Funding will establish multiple strategic partnerships with existing commercial domestic foundries to develop a data-driven, risk-based approach to supply chain protection and demonstrate the assured manufacture of advanced electronic components. In FY 2022, the program will continue to enhance the secure design and cloud capability with new tools/techniques.

Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) (DISA): The JAIC develops, tests, prototypes, and demonstrates innovative AI, Machine Learning (ML), data infrastructure, and model/algorithm test and assessment capabilities to integrate AI capabilities across numerous domains and technical areas, including maintenance and supply chain, personnel recovery, infrastructure assessment, geospatial monitoring during disaster, and cyber sense making. FY 2022 plans include operation and sustainment efforts for Joint Common Foundation computing and cloud services in addition to enterprise AI tools that enable users to import data, build and test AI models, and deploy models into production environments.

Nuclear Technologies and Capabilities Development (DTRA): A Defense Threat Reduction Agency R&D program for identifying, developing, and exploiting signatures associated with nuclear threats in order to detect and interdict such threats. Cloud-related activities involve delivering an enhanced cloud platform with integrated toolsets for nuclear planning, Nuclear, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and high Explosive (NCBRE) assessments, and advanced analytics for warfighter and Conventional-Nuclear Integration (CNI) situational awareness.

National Background Investigation Services - Software Pilot Program (DCSA): The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency’s effort to develop a modernized federal government  background investigation system to replace the current OPM legacy IT systems and provide a highly secured infrastructure. The NBIS will leverage contracts to provide program control, financial, and budget support, as well as operations functions to support the system’s cloud environment and transition of existing and new services into GovCloud environments.

Live Fire Test and Evaluation (OTE): A program under the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (a part of OSD), the primary objective of LFT&E is to assure that the vulnerability and survivability of DOD crew-carrying platforms, and the lethality of conventional munitions, are known and acceptable before entering full-rate production. Cloud-related work includes further refining strike data analysis methodologies to increase cloud-based automation, further development of new analysis tools obtain end user feedback on new tools/user interfaces, and integrating analysis tools with existing weaponeering applications.