The secretaries of the military departments recognize the need for a corps of commissioned officers proficient in critical foreign languages and/or foreign cultures. The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) emphasized the need for greater language capability and included the following wording in their report: "Developing broader linguistic capability and cultural understanding is also critical to prevail in the long war and to meet 21st century challenges..."

This training and expertise needs to be acquired before the officers are commissioned. To this end, the DoD has instituted a Foreign Language and Cultural Studies Skill Proficiency Bonus (SPB) program with a goal to encourage SROTC members to acquire proficiency in critical foreign languages and cultures.

Currently these critical languages include Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Farsi and the Central Asian languages. Central Asian languages are defined as the former Soviet Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The nations of Mongolia and Afghanistan are also included in Central Asia, in addition to the western Chinese provinces of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai and Tibet. In addition to these languages, the secretary of the service may designate other languages as critical to the mission of the service and therefore eligible under Foreign Language SPB guidelines.

Payment of the Foreign Language SPB may not exceed $3,000 per year. The program will be in effect from the date of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense (Personnel & Readiness) memorandum authorizing payment (not yet released) through December 31, 2013.