The intelligence community's budget priorities look similar to those leading the funding wish lists across the Defense Department: cutting-edge technology to take on evolving enemies, investment in future capabilities and balancing sustainment with leaning forward.

The difference: Beyond the IC's fiscal 2017 price tag of more than $53 billion, the public won't know much about the details behind those priorities, as they remain classified.

The $53.5 billion request, released Feb. 9, would fund the National Intelligence Program (NIP), which serves DoD, the Justice Department, the Homeland Security Department, the State Department, the Energy Department, the Treasury Department, the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

An NIP fact sheet does share some highlights. With the funds that would "support national security goals and focus on the most critical capabilities," the IC would target a list of broad goals that fall in line with current priorities at intelligence components and across DoD.

According to NIP documents, top 2017 objectives include:

  • Sustaining key investments to strengthen intelligence collection and critical operational capabilities supporting counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and counterproliferation.
  • Protecting the IC’s core mission areas and maintaining global coverage to remain vigilant against emerging threats.
  • Promoting increased intelligence sharing and advancing IC integration through continued investment in enterprise-wide capabilities and use of cloud technology to facilitate greater efficiency and improve the safeguarding of information across the intelligence information environment.
  • Identifying resources for strategic priorities, including advanced technology to improve strategic warning, enhanced collection and exploitation capabilities, and increased resiliency.
  • Supporting ongoing Overseas Contingency Operations to respond to persistent and diverse threats while adjusting to the changing defense force posture as directed by the President.

The budget would also support "reforms" that center on achieving savings by "by ensuring that the IC focuses on those programs that have the most impact and highest priority."

Cloud, enterprise IT and information-sharing capabilities are among those priorities in the IC, as they are in the rest of the government.

Those technologies and services are well under way in the IC, where more than 25,000 users already have migrated to a common desktop environment shared between intelligence agencies. This budget would expand users and boost integration and efficiencies while also enhancing security, according to an ODNI fact sheet.

"The budget expands the use of common, secure, shared IT capabilities and services in the IC by re-hosting more data and applications on the integrated cloud environment and increasing the number of common IC desktop users," the document notes. "The IC is working to ensure that intelligence information flows anywhere and anytime it is required by any authorized user, from the President to troops on the ground."

Back at the Pentagon, military-specific intelligence programs account for nearly $17 billion of the Pentagon's overall $583 billion budget request for fiscal 2017, DoD officials said Feb. 9. Details on those programs also are classified.

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