James N. Mattis via Wikimedia Commons

As part of President Trump’s focus on rebuilding and strengthening America’s defense and intelligence capabilities, the Pentagon’s secret Military Intelligence Program (MIP) received $23.1 billion in fiscal year 2020 — the highest budget total in nearly a decade. This came after a slight, and rare, dip in funding in FY 2019.

Very little is publicly known about the highly classified Military Intelligence Program but the funding, including U.S. base and overseas contingency operations money, “is aligned to support the National Defense Strategy,” per a four-sentence statement from the Pentagon, notes Defense News (DN).

DN adds that a Pentagon statement said:

The department has determined that releasing this top line figure does not jeopardize any classified activities within the MIP. No other MIP budget figures or program details will be released, as they remain classified for national security reasons.

According to the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), reports Military.com, “the Military Intelligence Program is one of the two major components of the overall U.S. intelligence budget,” which in 2018 together totaled $60.2 billion.

“The MIP is devoted to intelligence activity conducted by the military departments and agencies in the Department of Defense that support tactical U.S. military operations,” notes the DNI website.

The other major component is the National Intelligence Program (NIP), which DNI notes, included “all programs, projects and activities of the intelligence community” such as the CIA, the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and other clandestine agencies.

However, a few more details can be gleaned from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) notes Defense News. According to the CRS, MIP funds partly go to U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) to pursue “several current acquisition efforts focused on outfitting aircraft — both manned and unmanned, fixed and rotary wing — with advanced ISR and data storage capabilities that will work in multiple environments.”

A 2019 CRS report cited by DN states that the MIP also funds “defense intelligence activities intended to support operational and tactical level intelligence priorities supporting defense operations.”

Defense News added that “among other uses, these dollars can be spent to facilitate the dissemination of information that relates to a foreign country or political group, and covert or clandestine activities against political and military groups or individuals.”



Comments

  1. First remove incompetent folks from the FCC who have not fined or shut down grossly biased political elements in our News Media. They have lied. censored, suppressed, and manufactured numerous false stories in order to promote their political views. Pull the plug on them!

  2. Here we go again Trump looking for glory and disclosing the secret things that are best kept secret, some just need to bask in glory no matter what it costs the USA or the people involved in it

    1. Here we go again is right..It is people LIKE YOU that squawk when President Trump does NOT disclose what he is doing, and keeping it secret, then squawk AGAIN when he does inform the American people. Make up your mind, you cannot have it BOTH WAYS.
      BTW, I see nothing wrong with being transparent WHERE our taxpayer dollars are going.
      No “national secrets” were disclosed..Wise up.

    2. I see you clearly have no clue of what President Trump is or how he handles matters of a sensitive nature. Many people are at these meetings including Court stenographers etc. He took out Solomeine and Al Baghdadi successfully with no loss of American life except Conon the dog and he recovered. He does not disclose secret missions because he knows Schifty Schiff will run to the NYT or China and let them know. Sadly media are paid to destroy him and refuse to list all his huge accomplishments. Never in my lifetime has a human being been so maligned, labelled, smeared and still he outperforms any past President without Bribes, or being manipulated or controlled. Thats why the DemRATS hate him. Spoiling their fun, they sued to get drug trafficking kickbacks, human r=trafficking, and all the little children that were in Electrified cages underground in Hollywood, New York, The Vatican rescued and tunnels blsted thank God! When god is honoured and Israel is honored, miracle happen.

  3. I hope the terminology here still means what it says. I would love to support a Military that is defending U.S. Citizens and not globalism.

  4. It’s a secret intelligence program, I don’t think the world needs to know about it, after all the operative word here is “secret”.

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