FY22 Budget Outlook: Department of Defense
(AIP.org) The American Institute of Physics has compiled this extensive review of congressional appropriatorsfor funding the Department of Defense’s Science and Technology portfolio in fiscal year 2022. The House proposing a 5% cut to the current $16.9 billion topline and the Senate a 5% increase. The Senate proposes a particularly large boost for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, seeking a 12% increase to just under $4 billion, while the House proposes flat funding for the agency.The technology categories are numerous including microelectronics, advanced communications, high-performance computing, missile early warning, directed energy, mobile nuclear reactor, national security innovation capital, budgeting reform and quantum information science.
IQT-News provides here the AIP discussion of funding proposals for DOD quantum information projects:
Quantum information science. The Senate proposes to provide $60 million above the requested amount within DARPA’s budget for quantum computing, specifically to “evaluate disruptive designs for utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers, with a specific focus on systems that can be constructed in less than 10 years using non-traditional quantum computing approaches.”
The Senate also matches the $29 million requested for a new program that would accelerate work on a next-generation atomic clock and facilitate researcher access to quantum computing capabilities in the private sector, pursuant to a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. The House only proposes partial funding for the program, citing “unjustified growth.”
In addition, the Senate proposes $42 million more than the $169 million requested for the Air Force’s Dominant Information Sciences and Methods program, with $25 million of the increase for “photonic quantum computing” and $17 million for quantum internet and networking activities. The program is currently funded at $216 million, of which Congress directed at least $27 million go to QIS initiatives.
