US intelligence Budget

mike_cos

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Today it was made ​​public the amount of the National Intelligence Program (NIP) U.S. Intelligence Community. The NIP is one of two macro-aggregates that form the overall balance of
American intelligence services (the other is the Military Intelligence Program). This year the NIP is growing amounts to 53 billion dollars. The last year was 48 billion the year before and 47.5 more years
previous was 43 billion. Last year the total budget (NIP + MIP) was 75 billion dollars. Will be made public as soon as the Military Intelligence Program we know the total for 2010.

 
We're studying this is school right now, some mind-boggling figures when it comes to intel funding.
 
Why do you consider this important?
i.e. please comment when you post a story or link.
you're right.. i'm sorry... I think these figures are confirmation that an Obama administration, not a break with the previous one, but simply its continuity and investment in new military technology and weapons continued to prevent terrorist attacks (I think the average voter obama did notexpect this :rolleyes:). I believe that a country like America should invest in these figures intelligence, but it is difficult to justify to ordinary people when there is an economic crisis of this magnitude. Some of my friends think that despite all those billions of dollars the United States failed to anticipate the riots in North Africa .... but I do not think so ...Indeed, you were the first to know ...:cool:... or not? what do you think about?
 
I think it’s fucking terrible, and that we should be getting better product for what we are paying. No doubt a good majority of this budget is chewed up by technology, but holy shit, really $75 “Billon” on Intel?
 
I think that's proportional when you look at say the overall budget for the military ($685+ billion) and consider that the intel budget covers the entire IC, not just military intel.
 
I think that's proportional when you look at say the overall budget for the military ($685+ billion) and consider that the intel budget covers the entire IC, not just military intel.
Based on the data that we know we can try to arrange a table with the budgets of the last three years (in billions of U.S. dollars).

YEAR.................NIP....MIP ...TOTAL
2010 ...................53.....27..........80
2009 ..................48 ....26,4.......74,4
2008...................47,5..22,9.......70,4

WTF i can't arrange a table here....LL
 
I think that's proportional when you look at say the overall budget for the military ($685+ billion) and consider that the intel budget covers the entire IC, not just military intel.

Are you serious? Did you know that current DoD formula is $1 million per a US soldier, per a year deployed (and that has been consistent as per the white house)? WTF? How can that be proportional in anyway? I remember reading that it cost the Army $250k to deploy a soldier to OIF/OEF with all equipment needed. That’s not including sustaining the soldier, or paying that soldier.

Mara, I know you’re an Intel officer, but come on…. Do you really think any of this is realistic? Do you really feel we could not cut that cost down dramatically? Do you really think the Intel community is producing $75 billion is quality information? No disrespect meant towards you, but I think these number are crazy...
 
Actually I thought the numbers would be bigger. I think we get a good ROI when it comes to intelligence. It will never be 100% like people demand. There are two recent cases that come to mind the first one was about the bomb making house in San Diego and the other would be the wanna be terrorist they grab in Oregon. Think about everything that needs to be monitored 24/7/365. Your monitoing the whole world. We're monitoring whats going on in Japan as well as Libya, Eygpt and every other middle east country. Monitoring drugs in Mexico and Chavez in South America. Monitoring what NK is up to along with China and the Russian.

It never stops. Different events might get more priority but you can never walk away from monitoring the whole world. It's a big complex job with all kinds of threats and I think our country gets a pretty good ROI.
 
Technically our Intel is the best; our analysis needs improvement.
We can detect, id, etc; but if the White House wants it spun different, it get spun different.
I really think intel should not be an entry level MOS.
Bring Capt's/NCO's in from Combat Arms and give them the technical training, they have the operational training/experience to know what is importent.
J.A.B.-How would you improve the system?
 
Do you really think the Intel community is producing $75 billion is quality information?

I noticed that you wrote your post in English and not Russian, Chinese, or Arabic. I also assumed that after your posting, the secret police or "morality police" did not break down your door to take you away to their secret prison.

Yep...I think we're doing ok but there is ALWAYS room for improvement. Just imagine what could be accomplished if the budget were increased?

What was the bill for TARP? :-"
 
J.A.B.-How would you improve the system?

I would not even know where to start. I have only been exposed to the tactical end product and it was normally plain wrong or too old to do anything with.

I noticed that you wrote your post in English and not Russian, Chinese, or Arabic. I also assumed that after your posting, the secret police or "morality police" did not break down your door to take you away to their secret prison.

Yep...I think we're doing ok but there is ALWAYS room for improvement. Just imagine what could be accomplished if the budget were increased?

What was the bill for TARP? :-"

Really? You noticed all that eh? :rolleyes:lol;)

I won’t even get into the TARP stuff, but if you are comparing the Intel community to the private banking organizations in the United States, we might be able to look at it…lol

For $75 Billion I would expect to know when and where OBL takes his morning shit…
 
You guys do a pretty good job catching agents, too, it seems. That's a pretty important part of the intel equation. Whether that's mostly down to the FBI being pretty good at it, sloppy tradecraft or your own agents or highly likely a combination of all three, who knows.

Either way, it's good work.
 
I would agree that we have a very good intelligence community across the board, but my question is, is it cost efficient? Does the end product of information outweigh cost of $75 “billion”. That is a pretty big number if you ask me and for all the excellent work that is done, there are just as many down falls. That is part of any organization, so I am not pointing a finger say ‘’you guys suck” but I am wondering why it cost so much. I don’t think the Intel community is doing anything wrong or different than any other government organization, big Army will spend money on having dirt piles moved to make sure they get next year’s budget. That doesn’t mean they should be, or that it’s sustainable for a nation that is supposedly going broke.

SOWT ask’ed what would I do to improve the system, and I truly have no damn idea. But I am more than confident that if I had the data in front of me along with the stats on effectiveness, I could find some ways to cut the budget down. I have seen the amount of waste all over the Army and I can promise I could tear the Army’s budget down by 25-30% (probably a lot more) without losing combat effectiveness.

Could you imagine if you owned a business and ran your budgeting like the US Government? lol I guess it would be going broke like the US gov… :confused:
 
How to calculate ROI. I wish I could just quantify Return. It was like listening to one of our members talking about the Secret Service. I took for face value they were good. Then I listen to somebody who I trust and has worked with them and hear a different story completely. I hear on the board people don't need to know what is happening. Our operations should not be publicised or known. So I am left with trusting the same people that alllowed TARP, Billions to left wing spending, ETC.
I can only trust that the intel community is staffed by good hard working Americans that give me or us the US a good ROI.
What if we know exactly where Binladen is? Would we be better off watching who comes and goes than we would hanging one person? I don't know the answer but if I am hunting coyotes I keep bait in the trap.
If I look at Fort Hauchuca somebody had to pay for those antennas. :-"
If I grade them on allowing a Private to copy and steal thousands of documents my return sucks.
 
JAB, from a casual look from the outside it would seem to me that a lot of efforts are duplicated across several different agencies or departments. I could imagine that would up the costs considerably.
 
I am sure that has some to do with it, I would guess that there are more areas to look at than we could list on the forum. At the end of the day I don’t have enough knowledge to make the list, so I am pissing in the wind. There are a few on here that could make that list though, not that they should (probably be a bad idea).
 
I could tear the Army’s budget down by 25-30% (probably a lot more) without losing combat effectiveness.

We aren't terribly effective right now, but even a 30% reduction would cripple us.

The problem when you start cutting is that the cuts impact the rank and file of the organization, not management. Our flaws in intel are largely driven by management. Until leadership is accountable for their actions, we can't expect the product to improve.
 
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