Future Years Defense Program (FYDP)

The dollar and force structure resources used in DoD PPBE process is captured in the FYDP; it reflects PPBE system Program and Budget changes that occur throughout the process. The FYDP displays – by fiscal year – total DoD resources and force structure information for the prior year, current year, budget year, and the following four years (i.e., the "outyears"). It also includes force structure information for an additional three years beyond the four "outyears".

The FYDP is considered an internal DoD working document and is closely held within DoD. Since the FYDP outyear programs reflect internal planning assumptions, FYDP data beyond the budget year is not released outside the Executive Branch without the permission of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) (USD(C)). However, in response to a 1987 statutory requirement, DoD provides Congressional oversight committees and the Congressional Budget Office, within 120 days of submission of the PB, a special publication of the FYDP which includes procurement and RDT&E annexes displaying data for the prior, current, budget, and four out years.

Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) Structure

As shown in the Figure, the FYDP is structured in three basic dimensions. For internal DoD management purposes (the first dimension), the FYDP is divided into 11 MFPs. In its second dimension, the FYDP is arrayed by appropriation (used by Congress to review the budget request and enact budget authority through the authorization and appropriation process). The third dimension displays resources by DoD components (e.g., Services and Defense Agencies).

An MFP reflects a macro-level force mission or a support mission of DoD and contains the resources necessary to achieve a broad objective or plan. It reflects fiscal time-phasing of mission objectives and the means proposed for their accomplishment. Each MFP consists of a number of program elements, discussed in the next paragraph.

The program element (PE) is the primary data element in the FYDP and normally the smallest aggregation of resources used by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) for analysis. It generally represents a collection of functional or organizational entities and their related resources. PEs are designed and quantified to be comprehensive and mutually exclusive. As the building blocks of the programming and budgeting system, PEs are continually reviewed to maintain proper visibility into the multitude of defense programs. They may be aggregated in a variety of ways:

• To display total resources assigned to a specific program
• To display weapons systems and support systems within a program
• To select specified resources
• To display logical groupings for analytical purposes
• To identify selected functional groupings of resources

The symbology of PEs consists of a seven-digit number with an alphabetical suffix that identifies a program, organization or office. The first two digits identify the MFP that contains the PE (e.g., the PE "0203123A" would indicate a program within MFP 2 - General Purpose Forces). The alphabetical suffix identifies the Service or Defense Agency that has cognizance over a particular program element. For example, "A" indicates an Army program, "F" an Air Force program, "N" a Navy program and "M" a Marine Corps program. This PE structure facilitates compilation of the FYDP for different purposes, such as an appropriation review.

The Director, Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (D/CAPE) manages the PE data base through a system called the FYDP Structure Management (FSM) system.

An acquisition program will likely have resources in multiple PEs and have funding in several appropriations during its life cycle.