C4I spending to dip through 2000

The good news: U.S. defense spending for command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence is increasing in proportion to the overall U.S. defense budget. The bad news: even still, C4I spending is expected to dip and then level off through 2000, according to a new study by industry analyst Frost & Sullivan of Mountain View, Calif., entitled U.S. Military Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (C4I) Markets. U.S. C4I spending, which was $7.56 billion in 1995, fell to $7.03 billion in 1996, and will drop to $6.63 billion by 2000, and then begin to move upward, according to F&S figures. The survey covers continental ground-based surveillance, global and tactical C2 systems, defensewide and tactical communications, tactical reconnaissance and surveillance, and defensewide C4I systems. - J.K.