The Pentagon has significantly scaled back spending on sensitive intelligence programs, slashing billions from those programs in fiscal 2012, according to a recent department statement.

The department's overall budget for its Military Intelligence Program (MIP) in FY12, which includes both baseline programs and those used to support combat operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere, topped out at $21.5 billion, DoD said on Tuesday.

That figure, which pays for everything from military spy satellites to unmanned surveillance drones, is $2.5 billion smaller than what DoD spent on those programs in FY11, according to recent news reports.

On the civilian side, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) also issued its FY12 budget figures on Tuesday, reflecting a decline in intelligence spending compared to FY11.

However, the spending gap between fiscal years at ODNI was significantly smaller, totaling out to a $700 million reduction to classified intelligence programs.

The larger drop in MIP investments is indicative of the enormous fiscal pressure facing the department. Pentagon officials have already cut $500 billion in spending in its FY13 budget plan, sent to Capitol Hill in February.

Defense officials are also staring down the barrel of another $500 billion reduction to Pentagon accounts if the sequestration plan approved by Congress in last year's debt-reduction deal goes into effect in January.

The Pentagon and intelligence community have yet to release their budget numbers for fiscal 2013. Those figures likely won't be disclosed until next September, at the end of the fiscal year.

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Editor's Note: The 9/11 Commission's final report faulted the entirety of the Washington DC apparatus for "not connecting the dots," where jihadist terrorism was concerned. The purposeful degradation of any intelligence mechanism as the Middle East sees a massive advancement of the jihadist ideology into the mainstream is not only dangerous; it not only is antithetic to the 9/11 Commission's conclusions, it's just stupid...that or it is intentional, which would be treasonous.