$824 Billion Pentagon Budget: Why So Many Classified Programs with Movie Names?

The Pentagon budget request for fiscal year 2024 comes in at a staggering $824 billion, the highest any country has ever spent on its military. A lot of this is going to classified Research, Development, Test & Evaluation programs, which are largely classified or only present brief, vague descriptions. While flicking through one of the lengthy supporting documents I noticed how some of these classified money pits take their names from movies.

$824 Billion Pentagon Budget: Why So Many Classified Programs with Movie Names?

How the US Military Rewrote War of the Worlds

Steven Spielberg’s 2005 alien invasion adventure War of the Worlds helped kick off the recent string of military-supported extraterrestrial war films. While the core story of one man trying to make his way through a chaotic world while keeping his family alive has nothing to do with the US Army, Air Force or the Marine Corps, all three military branches provided hardware in support of the battle sequences, and had some choice words to say about the script.

How the US Military Rewrote War of the Worlds