Pentagon leaders seek to classify long-term DOD budget projections to keep future military spending secret

April 8, 2020
Pentagon says an unclassified FYDP might inadvertently reveal sensitive information, even though these numbers have been unclassified since 1989.

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has asked Congress to allow it to classify its Future Year Defense Program (FYDP) military spending projections, new documents have revealed. Defense News reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

8 April 2020 -- The FYDP numbers, which project five years into the future, are considered essential information for the public to see where the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) expects to invest in the future, and to hold the department accountable when those spending plans change.

Information on the request to classify these budget numbers was published late last month by Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. Aftergood wrote that the proposal would “make it even harder for Congress and the public to refocus and reconstruct the defense budget.”

In its DOD budget request to Congress, the Pentagon wrote that an unclassified FYDP “might inadvertently reveal sensitive information,” despite the fact the numbers have been unclassified since 1989.

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John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics

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