Funding For Uncrewed Systems in the FY 2022 Defense Budget – NDAA Update

March 3, 2022

Each year, AUVSI reviews the United States defense budget to determine funding that will support the research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E) and procurement of uncrewed vehicles (UxV) and associated technologies. Research on FY 2022 was published in July 2021, and today, AUVSI updated these findings to incorporate data from the National Defense Authorization Act following the bill’s passage at the end of last year.

AUVSI manages a range of programs and events to support the uncrewed industry, and consistent feedback from members and attendees reflects their desire for more information on how DOD funds are spent in the uncrewed arena. The purpose of this research is to present information on the range of technologies being developed and acquired by the U.S. DOD to support current and future UxV operations. With the U.S. Armed Forces at the forefront in advancing uncrewed systems, understanding which technologies and capabilities are being procured and developed provides a strong understanding of the current direction of the industry and can help inform future investments. This analysis highlights the various uncrewed vehicle RDT&E and procurement focus areas of the U.S. DOD Defense Budget.

Historically, UxV were considered simple tools which required the supervision and control of a remote operator to complete the “dull, dirty, and dangerous” tasks on the battlefield. While some of these basic forms of operation still exist, recent advancements in autonomy, sensors, energy/propulsion systems, and navigation/control systems have improved the efficiency and effectiveness of UxV, allowing them to function for long periods of time with minimal human input and oversight. Sustained investments in UxV systems will expand their uses, enabling DOD to more effectively allocate resources and speed response times in a hybrid fleet system. In fact, UxV have also ingrained themselves in the daily missions of soldiers to the extent that they are deemed an essential component of the operations team by their human operators.

In FY 2022, AUVSI has identified and captured data on over 280 RDT&E Program Elements and more than 140 Procurement Line Items. These programs are associated with 15 different departments and agencies that seek to develop and deploy UxS in support of U.S. troops. The parameters captured for each of these efforts include domain(s) of operation, funding type, funding amount for FY 2020 – 2022, and specific technologies supported. We then plugged this data set into Tableau allowing users to manipulate the infographics and find the information of interest.

Explore the data here for all uncrewed programs of record as we track funding throughout the appropriations process — from the President’s proposed budget through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Highlights

An estimated $8.2 billion has been authorized for uncrewed vehicles in FY 2022.

RDT&E

In FY 2022, President Biden’s budget requested almost half a billion dollars more in support of the RDT&E of uncrewed vehicles relative to FY 2021. This was further increased by $287 million through the NDAA.
Each domain sees increases in requested funding for uncrewed vehicles from FY 2021 to FY 2022 – with increases of between $50 and $220 million.

Procurement

The requested procurement of uncrewed vehicles in FY 2022 decreased by about 35% since FY 2020 which is mainly attributed to changes in the air domain.

Furthermore, relative to organization, significant decreases are associated with the Army and Air Force as FY 2022 requested funds total less than half of FY 2020.
Navy procurement for uncrewed vehicles decreased by about $300 million between FY 2020 and FY 2021 but then increased by about $125 million in FY 2022.
Procurement of uncrewed vehicles by the Marine Corps doubles between FY 2020 and FY 2022.
Most technology areas see decreases in procurement of systems in support of uncrewed vehicle operations between FY 2020 and FY 2022 except Propulsion/Energy which more than doubles and Communications/Data Management which has a slight increase of just under $20 million.

Dashboards

UxV RDT&E — This dashboard represents the FY 2022 RDT&E funding request relative to the organization in the DoD; the domains being supported; and the technologies being supported.

UxV RDT&E Cross-Tabulated — This dashboard represents the FY 2022 RDT&E funding request cross-referenced between (1) organizations and the domains supported; (2) organizations and the technologies supported; (3) and technologies supported in each domain.

UxV RDT&E by Program — This dashboard shows the requested funding for each of the RDT&E initiatives supporting UxV technologies in FY 2022. The first chart is sectioned by Organization > Program Element > Project > Sub-Project with the boxes sized relative to the requested funding.

UxV Procurement by Program — This dashboard shows FY 2022 procurement requests for each overarching line item and then sectioned into smaller boxes based on the relative funding of each unit. The chart is sectioned by Organization > Line Item > Unit. Hover your mouse over the Unit boxes for some additional information on requested acquisitions for FY 2022. Funding totals are calculated by multiplying unit cost by unit quantity which may result in some minor discrepancies due to rounding error.

UxV Funding Trends (FY20-FY22) — This dashboard provides estimated UxV funding from FY 2020 to FY 2022 relative to the domains, organizations, and technologies associated with each category. The funding totals have been separated by RDT&E and procurement. Each sub-category includes a linear regression line or “line of best fit” developed from the three data points (the actual FY 2020 funding, the estimated FY 2021 funding, and the requested FY 2022 funding) to show the trend in funding over the three-year period. Please keep in mind that the FY 2022 values will change based on the amounts authorized by the NDAA and then hopefully appropriated. These changes are displayed in the final two dashboards.

NDAA Changes — The House and Senate review the President’s Budget and develop their versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). A compromise between their versions is used to form the final NDAA. The NDAA compromise is displayed on this dashboard and represents an increase of $765 million in support of UxV technologies.

NDAA Committee Change Process — This dashboard shows the recommended changes to the DOD’s budget from various iterations of the congressional review process alongside the final NDAA. This includes the House Appropriations Committee – Defense (HAC-D), the Senate Appropriations Committee – Defense (SAC-D), the Senate Armed Services Committee’s (SASC) version of the NDAA, and the final House version of the NDAA. Though the final appropriations bill for FY 2022 has not yet been passed at the time of creating these infographics, it should match the final NDAA compromise.