Intelligence: The Bulging Black Budget

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September 2, 2007: Since September 11, 2001, American spending on secret (or "Black") projects has gone up 112 percent (to about $32 billion), while overall defense spending has risen at only about two-thirds that rate. About three-quarters of the Black money goes to the air force, and most of the Black Budget is for research and development (the rest, about a third, is for manufacturing the secret gear). This indicates more spending on spy satellites and new sensors, of spy satellite quality, for UAVs (especially the high flying Global Hawk). It's believed that some new reconnaissance UAVs are also in the Black budget, as well as many electronic warfare and intelligence projects. New intelligence software, for analysis of text, pictures and other data is also in the Black budget, and is sometimes never unclassified until after it becomes obsolete and no longer used. Cryptography (secret codes for transmitting data) is also sometimes in the Black budget, although the NSA has a secret budget for most of that stuff. NSA research usually stays secret for decades after it is no longer in use.

 

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