Understanding the Department of the Navy’s budget is important to understand where and when funding is projected to be allocated. This type of information can be learned through the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP).
FYDP is a projection of the forces, resources, and programs to support Department of Defense (DOD) operations. The FYDP is compiled every year and typically completed during the programming phase of the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) process. The projection is updated during the budgeting phase to reflect DOD’s final funding decisions presented in the annual President’s budget request. Additional details about the FYDP can be found annually at the Congressional Research Service’s website: Defense Primer Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) (IF10831).
Navy personnel assigned to one of the DoD, Joint or Service Staffs at the Pentagon are quickly taught to become efficient Action Officers (AO’s) and Requirements Officers (RO’s). As part of their training, that are taught in detail about how the FYDP is put together with each Services’ ‘puts and takes’ to create and manage annual operating budgets.
One member of the Giesler Executive Leadership Team served on the OPNAV N6 staff as both an AO/RO and they had to create and defend their individual Program (SEW Engineering). In addition, they had to become a subject matter expert of all the individual CNO N2/N6 programs and budgetary line items that feed into an overall Department of the Navy budgetary cycle and ultimately the President’s Budget that is presented to Congress each year for funding.
The following URL resources are presented as examples of where the DoD and Services unclassified budgets can be found on the Web:
The Department of the Navy Budget contains several different types of monetary ($) resources:
Operations & Maintenance Navy (O&MN) for the operating forces
Other Procurement Navy (OPN) for acquisition of platforms and equipment
Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) for Research
Additional information can be found in the Fiscal Year 2024 Department of the Navy Budget Materials released in March of this year. For more detailed information on how to read the Navy Budget Exhibits and understanding the Activity Group and Sub-Activity Groups, please reach out and schedule a consultation with Patricia Giesler, LLC.
Finally, keep an eye on the work from the Commission on Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) that is examining the effectiveness of the Defense Department’s PPBE process. The Defense Department’s current PPBE system was created in the early 1960s to allocate Department resources to meet national security objectives. The Commission is working on ways to improve the process. An Interim report was released in August 2023 and they are on track to deliver their Final Report in March 2024.