The Defense Department's $670.9 billion budget request for fiscal 2012 is less than the Pentagon has requested in the past, but the decrease is mostly due to a sharp decrease in funding for overseas contingency operations, what most people refer to as "wars" (although OCO money also funds humanitarian operations such as efforts in Haiti).

The base amount--that is, the money the DoD uses to fund its day-to-day operations--would go up in fiscal 2012 by 4.2 percent, if the budget request is enacted as requested by Congress. That increase comes despite an effort by the DoD to reallocate $100 billion through an efficiency drive to higher priorities and $78 billion in funding cuts spread over five years announced by Defense Secretary Robert Gates earlier this year.

As for some of the specifics in the budget request, included in the base amount is a request for $2.3 billion on improving its cyber capabilities. Cyber Command would get $500 million of that over five years for the construction and equipping of a Joint Operations Center at Ft. Meade, Md. Click here for more FierceGovernmentIT coverage of the federal and military cybersecurity-related budget request.

Among other DoD efforts of note, the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical would gain a significant increase in with a budget of $1.27 billion, about double what the program requested to spend in the current fiscal year ($612.7 million) and still much more than the fiscal 2010 amount ($774.6 million).

WIN-T is an effort to bring high-bandwidth, mobile, two-way satellite communications and ad hoc mesh radio connectivity to battlefield commanders.

Much of the increase is due to an upsurge in requested procurement dollars, although research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) dollars would also increase.

The Joint Tactical Radio System would also enjoy a similar increase, although unlike WIN-T, due almost entirely due to a highly pronounced increase in procurement. The JTRS program means to develop and field software-defined, multi-channel radios in multiple settings--everything from a ground combat to airborne platforms.

The Global Positioning Satellite constellation, which is managed by the Air Force, would also receive more than year's past under the fiscal 2012 DoD budget--again, mainly due to an increase in procurement. The Government Accountability Office has warned that the system is in danger of dropping below the minimum threshold of 24 satellites required to ensure a high standard of signal availability and accuracy.

Note: some budget documentation for the DoD fiscal 2012 request is still unavailable as of this writing on Feb. 16. As it becomes publically accessible, we will continue to update our coverage of the budget request. Follow all our reporting here.

For more:
- go to the DoD comptroller's fiscal 2012 budget page
- download directly an overview of DoD proposed fiscal 2012 acquisition costs by weapon system

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FierceGovernmentIT covers the fiscal 2012 budget request - UPDATED II