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.
The defense intelligence community has tried three times in the past decade to build a “common intelligence picture”—a single data stream providing the information that commanders need to make decisions about the battlefield. The first two attempts failed. But officials say things are different today.