The Pentagon’s number two civilian official shed some light last Friday on the department’s upcoming fiscal year 2022 budget request noting it will place a focus on developing software and subsystems based on next-generation technologies to power future platforms, as well as creating a “sustainable approach” to legacy system divestitures.
“Platforms will always matter, but it’s the software…it’s the munitions. It’s those pieces that make such a critical difference in our capability sets, and that’s a different funding picture, I think, I would say,” Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of defense, said during an Aspen Security Forum discussion. “When we roll this budget out, I am confident that we will have areas, first of all, of risk that we will be able to identify and talk through. But I am also confident that we’re putting forward a really high quality budget that does the things…in terms of preparing us for the competition with China.”
The White House has detailed its requested FY ‘22 topline budget numbers, to include $715 billion for the Pentagon, but has yet to announce when a full budget will be released (Defense Daily, April 9).
Hicks’ remarks on Friday did reiterate several high-level priorities included in the recent budget topline document, to include divesting of legacy systems to fully fund higher priorities, advancing the new Pacific Deterrence Initiative and supporting ongoing modernization efforts.
The deputy secretary also disputed reports that the Pentagon and White House had disagreements on FY ‘22 funding levels when crafting the budget.
“I would not characterize it that way. I would say that the characterization that’s factual is that the secretary [of defense] and the president came to an agreed viewpoint that was not difficult, if you will, for them to arrive at where the department should be and how it made sense in the overall budget,” she said. “One of the most fascinating things I found is that the only thing people know about our defense budget is the topline and everyone is arguing over it. They have no idea what’s in the budget and that tells you everything you need to know about the state of debate in Washington.”
In response to a question on how the department is preparing for industry partners and lawmakers who push back on legacy system divestitures, Hicks said leadership is working on incentivizing transition to new technologies and creating a “sustainable approach” to building an industrial base for new technologies.
“We are not divesting to do nothing. We are divesting to shift,” Hick said. “We can use those basic approaches of incentivizing transition to new capabilities and new technologies and new approaches. We absolutely need to protect our critical workforce skills. You can look at everything from our shipyards to the aerospace engineers that we have, [that’s] a vital interest for us. We talk a lot internally, with the secretary and I here, about having a sustainable approach.”
Hicks noted the push to create a “sustainable approach” to moving on from legacy systems will be a key line of effort in the department’s FY ‘23 budget cycle.
“This will be a centerpiece to how we think about the changes we may need to see,” she said.