The appropriated funding for the Military Intelligence Program amounted to $27 billion in Fiscal 2010, the Defense Department announced Thursday. That total included both base-budget outlays and supplemental appropriations. DOD officials said they determined that “releasing this topline figure does not jeopardize any classified activities within the MIP.” They said they would not release additional MIP budget figures or program details since these data “remain classified for national security reasons.” The MIP encompasses the projects and activities that support the Defense Secretary’s intelligence, counterintelligence, and related responsibilities.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…