Tracking Cyber Research

The Senate Armed Services Committee is “concerned” about the nearly 20 percent drop in funding for cyber-related science and technology research in the Air Force’s Fiscal 2013 budget request. The Air Force has asked for $136 million in these areas for next fiscal year, according to the committee report that accompanies the Senate’s draft version of the Fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill. The committee is worried that such a significant funding decrease would detrimentally affect cyber research, even though the Air Force intends to increase funding in these areas starting in Fiscal 2014, states the report, publicly released in early June. As such, the committee directed the Air Force to submit a report roughly six months after next fiscal year’s defense authorization bill is enacted outlining: its near-, mid-, and far-term S&T priorities for cyber; the “transition strategy” for turning these investments into actual cyber weapon systems; the service’s plan to recruit and train a qualified cyber workforce; and how the service will meet its facilities needs to accomplish cyber research. (SASC report; caution, large-sized file.)