Spending at the Space Force is springing forward, just in time for Daylight Saving Time.
To refresh you, here is our Five Fast Facts about the Fiscal Year 2023 Space Force budget request…which reads like a historical novel compared to the FY24 budget request.
Space Force spending is on a fast, upward trajectory as the new military service is carved out of existing services, but mostly from the Air Force. Overall, the request is up from 20-23% over the Fiscal Year 2023 request. But then, there is what the Congress actually appropriated for FY23, which we have listed in the “FY23 Enacted” column in the chart below:
| Space Force Account | FY23 Request in Thousands | FY23 Enacted in Thousands | FY24 Request in Thousands | % increase over FY23 Request | % increase over FY23 Enacted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Topline | $24,500,000 | $26,100,000 | $30,000,000 | ~22% | ~21% |
| Operations & Maintenance | $4,000,000 | $4,000,000 | $4,900,000 | ~23% | ~23% |
| Procurement | $3,600,000 | $4,500,000 | $4,700,000 | ~31% | ~4.5% |
| Personnel | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,200,000 | 20% | 20% |
| RDT&E | $15,800,000 | $16,600,000 | $19,200,000 | ~22% | ~16% |
As you can see, Congress added substantially to the Procurement and Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) accounts last year. So, the FY24 request is only a roughly 4.5% increase (Procurement) and 16% increase (RDT&E) over what the lawmakers appropriated for those accounts.
Knowing Congress, as we do, there is no reason to believe lawmakers won’t do exactly the same thing as this budget request wends its way through the process.
We’ll be watching and reporting about it.
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