The United States said Tuesday it spent $75 billion on intelligence gathering over the past year, a slight decrease for a budget that still far exceeds other countries’ spending on spy services.
The director of national intelligence’s office said Congress had approved $53.9 billion in funds for fiscal year 2012, which ended last month, while the Pentagon revealed it spent $21.5 billion on its intelligence agencies.
Amid growing fiscal pressures, the total intelligence budget has declined modestly for two years running. The budget for spy agencies rose to $80.1 billion in fiscal year 2010, and dropped to 78.6 billion in fiscal year 2011.
The biggest savings have come from the Pentagon’s share of the intelligence budget, with spending on agencies that fall within the Defense Department’s authority declining from $27 billion in 2010 to $21 billion in 2012, according to official statements.
The decrease was possibly due to the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and the drawdown of American forces underway in Afghanistan, reducing the need for costly battlefield intelligence, analysts say.
The intelligence budget pays for an array of spy satellites and hi-tech equipment as well as tens of thousands of employees, including analysts, linguistic experts, cryptologists, cyber specialists and spies collecting intelligence in the field the old fashioned way.
Experts say the vast US intelligence budget, which dramatically expanded after the attacks of September 11, 2001, is much larger than any potential adversary’s spending on intelligence.
The public disclosures of the budget figures are required under a new law but the 16 intelligence agencies are not obliged to reveal any further details about the funding for spy work.
“Any and all subsidiary information concerning the NIP (national intelligence program) budget, whether the information concerns particular intelligence agencies or particular intelligence programs, will not be disclosed,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said in a release.
Releasing further details on the breakdown of the spy services’ budget could jeopardize US national security, the ODNI said.
US reports slight decline in intelligence budget
