The Department of Defense budget request for 2007 includes about $30.1 billion in classified or “black” spending, according to a new analysis by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

“In real (inflation-adjusted) terms the $30.1 billion FY 2007 request includes more classified acquisition funding than any other defense budget since FY 1988, near the end of the Cold War, when DoD received $19.7 billion ($29.4 billion in FY 2007 dollars) for these programs,” wrote author Steven Kosiak.

See “Classified Funding in the FY 2007 Budget Request” (pdf) from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

The study was reported in “Classified military spending reaches highest level since Cold War” by Drew Brown, Knight-Ridder Newspapers, May 19.