Pentagon intelligence spending rose nearly 18 percent over the past year, a sign the military is ramping up its spying-and-intel-gathering activities around the world.
While military intelligence spending has risen between two and seven percent since 2016, the increase from $19.2 billion in fiscal 2017 to $22.1 billion in fiscal 2018 represents the largest annual spike since the Pentagon began releasing the figures a decade ago. (Defense One has adjusted all figures from then-year dollars to current 2018 values.)
While military intelligence spending has risen between two and seven percent since 2016, the increase from $19.2 billion in fiscal 2017 to $22.1 billion in fiscal 2018 represents the largest annual spike since the Pentagon began releasing the figures a decade ago. (Defense One has adjusted all figures from then-year dollars to current 2018 values.)
"Current operations are a huge driver of intelligence spending," said Travis Sharp, a defense spending analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "The level of resources that’s dedicated to supporting [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] activities is pretty substantial."
By comparison, money spent on the National Intelligence Program ‐ U.S. spy activities done outside of the military ‐ increased about 6.7 percent in real terms between 2017 and 2018. Over that same period, the Pentagon’s total budget increased about 6 percent.
Pentagon officials do not publicly detail how they spend the billions they get for intelligence, citing a need for secrecy, but they do release two figures each year: How much they request and how much Congress approved.
Current military intelligence spending is increasing at a rate not seen since the high point of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a time when hundreds of thousands of American troops were deployed. While there are substantially fewer troops on the ground in those two countries today, the military still relies on a vast intelligence network of people and drones over the battlefield.
Those drones ‐ flown by a mix of troops and contractors ‐ collect video and signals ‐ which is reviewed by analysts and machines.
"That chain, from targeting to collection, to processing, to analysis, to dissemination ‐ the intelligence cycle is expensive and manpower-intensive," Sharp said.