Military organizations worldwide are continuing to integrate uncrewed vehicles (UxV) into their operations at a growing rate. The United States (U.S.) Department of Defense (DoD) has funded the research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) and procurement of UxV for decades. Support for these systems and associated technologies continues with the DoD’s proposed budget for FY 2024.
The President’s Budget (PB) request is released each year and includes justification documents detailing the range of technologies that will be procured and developed with that budget. In FY 2024, the DoD requested an estimated $10.95 billion to support uncrewed vehicle acquisition and development which represents an approximately one billion dollar increase from the amount enacted in the previous fiscal year. Since 2013, AUVSI has been tracking and summarizing the DoD’s budget for our members and the uncrewed vehicle community, enabling those involved in this market to make better business decisions as they position for contracts and future opportunities.
In support of that effort, AUVSI has released written reports in our 2023 Quarterly Insight publications. The first article in the Q1 Insight summarized initial findings from the budget when it was first made publicly available, as well as investigated changes in funding to key programs. An article featured in the Q3 Insight took a deep dive into the RDT&E programs supporting uncrewed vehicles in FY 2024, as well as any relevant changes and provisions identified in the House and Senate authorization and appropriation legislation. This legislation will be used to form the final budget for FY 2024. Some key findings from the Q3 report include:
- New initiatives in FY 2024 shift a major focus toward air programs, especially regarding the development, maturation, and integration of autonomous capabilities. Investments in these programs will improve capabilities supporting sensors, communication systems, navigation systems, and simulation environments for uncrewed vehicles.
- Significant growth areas are identified across all domains of operation for uncrewed vehicles. Noteworthy projects from each of the core services include:
- The Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) project, which is developing autonomous loyal wingmen for fighter jets.
- The Army’s Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) project developing hardware and software upgrades to improve autonomous off-road mobility, safety architectures, and vehicle perception.
- The Navy’s range of Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) programs, which provide improved battlespace awareness and lethality.
- A range of Counter-UAV (C-UAV) capabilities that will protect infrastructure and assets from emerging threats in combat scenarios.
- Congressional priorities involving the development and countering of next-generation automation. The priorities offer insight into technologies of high importance to the DoD and inform future technology developments, acquisition strategies, potential technology gaps, and risks. Investigations into these priorities have revealed increased interest in low-cost, air-launched, and VTOL UAS; advanced technologies to counter emerging threats posed to U.S. forces; additional investment in commercially available maritime platforms; continued emphasis on common control systems for ground robotics.
AUVSI’s Quarterly Insight publication can be accessed here. You can also review past written reports on the DoD’s budget here.
FY 2024 Tableau Report – Interactive Visualizations
Executive Summary
We are pleased to offer our community unprecedented access to the data supporting our written reports to explore the data for all unmanned programs of record as we track funding throughout the appropriations process — from the President’s proposed budget, through the House and Senate versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), to final appropriations (the final appropriations are still pending and will be added once finalized).
The Tableau workbook presents the entire raw data set with the ability to filter information by categories like domain, technologies, and the DoD organization requesting funding. This allows users to conduct granular investigations based on individual topics of interest.
- $1,650 for AUVSI Organizational Members
- $2,750 for Nonmembers
- Contact your account manager to purchase the interactive report.
Across all domains (air, ground, maritime, counter-UxV), approximately 300 RDT&E programs (broken down into 1,260 sub-projects) and 160 procurement programs (accounting for nearly 1,000 cost elements) have been captured in this resource. A quick introduction for each section is provided along with a description for each dashboard in the Tableau workbook.
