A spending bill proposed Monday by Congress would reduce the Defense Department's Research and Development budget by about $7 billion when compared to 2013.
Lawmakers announced a full 2014 Pentagon appropriations on Monday that would supply $63 billion to military R&D programs. The military received about $70 billion last year and requested $67.5 billion for 2014.
This was part of the hit the military's procurement budget also took as part of the 2014 defense appropriations bill, which went down by $8 billion over the 2013 budget. Congress provided about $92 billion in procurement funds in 2014 to the military.
The bill offered general guidelines to the services in the manner in which they could use their 2014 funding. The bill specified the Army use $4.8 billion on aircraft, $1.5 billion for missiles and $1.6 billion for ground vehicles. The Navy will receive $16 billion for new aircraft and $15 billion for ships.
The Air Force received a smaller aircraft procurement budget than the Navy as it received $10.3 billion for aircraft in 2014. The Marine Corps received $1.2 billion total for its procurement projects.
The Navy did receive a few guidelines on shipbuilding programs. For example, the bill specified that the Navy spend $6 billion on the Virginia-class submarine program, $1.8 billion on the Littoral Combat Ship program, and $2 billion for the destroyer program.
