The budget will not do much for university researchers on the prowl for Pentagon funds — despite its proposed $5-billion hike in research and development at the defence department.

All of the increase is earmarked for weapons-system development. The Department of Defense's $1.4 billion in annual support for basic research will actually slip by $10 million, while its applied-research funding slides by 7.5% to $3.8 billion.

The main exception to this is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, whose basic research programme will be boosted by almost a quarter to $176 million, while its applied research budget grows by 15% to more than $1.2 billion.