Chapter 16
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Technological superiority is a principal characteristic of the U.S. military advantage. It is essential to achieving the force dominance envisioned by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Joint Vision 2010. The objective of the DoD Science and Technology (S&T) program is to develop options for decisive military capabilities based on superior technology. Because the United States is not the only nation with competence in defense science and technology, DoD recognizes that over time, other nations will acquire comparable individual systems. Therefore, to sustain the lead that brought victory in the Gulf War, the United States must invest in the next generation of defense technologies.
Military needs drive DoD's technology investments. It is a fundamental assumption of the U.S. national security strategy that the U.S. armed forces will be technologically superior to any potential opponent. In the past, technology offset numerically superior enemy forces. Today, technology also enables decisive, rapid victory with minimum casualties and maximum control of collateral damage. It is imperative that the DoD S&T program invent, develop, and harness technology to realize new warfighting capabilities.
For an increasing number of technologies important for national defense, the commercial market will exceed the defense market, and the momentum of the commercial market will drive technical progress in those areas. DoD can both benefit from and contribute to a stronger U.S. industry by aligning defense technology development to complement commercial investment where appropriate. At the same time, DoD must continue to identify and support a well-defined set of defense-unique, defense-funded capabilities. In addition, DoD must continue to invest in long-term research in defense-critical technologies. Research results not only provide national security advances, but also lay the groundwork for U.S. economic strength.
Superior weapon system performance must be made more affordable. This demands that DoD pursue technology in new ways. First, where there is an advantage, DoD must exploit the technology innovations of commercial industry and realize the cost reductions that come from the economies of scale available in large commercial markets. Second, DoD must develop technologies that reduce the acquisition, operations, and maintenance costs of defense systems.
STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The Department has strengthened the strategic planning and assessment processes for the science and technology program in order to enhance the S&T community's responsiveness to its warfighting and acquisition customers. Over the last several years, the Department has reached a new level of integrated corporate planning for the total DoD investment in S&T. This has been a team effort under the leadership of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) that has included the Office of Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Services, and the defense agencies. DDR&E is responsible for the direction, overall quality, and content of the DoD S&T program; it develops strategies and supporting plans to exploit and develop technology to respond to the needs of the Services and to maintain U.S. technological superiority.
To guide the Department's investment in science and technology, DDR&E has developed an integrated set of strategic plans. The DDR&E Defense S&T Strategy is responsive to both the National Security S&T Strategy and Joint Vision 2010 and serves as the capstone document for three DoD integrated S&T strategic plans. This Defense S&T Strategy describes how the DoD S&T program addresses the S&T needs of the future warfighting commanders in chief and the Services, while leveraging the S&T efforts of other federal agencies and private sector S&T organizations as highlighted in the National Security S&T Strategy. These DoD strategic plans build upon the S&T plans of the individual Services and defense agencies.
The top-level guidance for this set of DoD plans comes from the National
Science and Technology Council's (NSTC's) National Security S&T Strategy
and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Joint Vision 2010. The elements
of the National Security S&T Strategy that guide DoD S&T planning
include:
Under Joint Vision 2010, the traditional concepts of maneuver, strike, protection, and logistics are leveraged with technological advances and information superiority to produce new operational concepts that interact to create the powerful, synergistic effect of full spectrum dominance, the capability to dominate an adversary across the full range of military operations. The four leveraged concepts delineated in Joint Vision 2010 which also guide the S&T plan are dominant maneuver, precision engagement, full dimensional protection, and focused logistics.
Three S&T strategic plans, the Joint Warfighting S&T Plan, the Defense Technology Area Plan, and the Basic Research Plan, detail how DoD will achieve this Defense S&T Strategy. Together, these plans document the overall DoD S&T effort in terms of goals, defense technology objectives, schedules, and funding. These plans not only address opportunities for transitioning technology rapidly into new system acquisition programs and upgrades to fielded systems, but also highlight projected operational payoffs from those technologies. Additionally, they are used to ensure that Service and defense agency efforts are responsive to the overall DoD strategy and that efforts by multiple components are complementary.
These three S&T strategic plans ensure that the near-, mid-, and far-term needs of the joint warfighter are properly balanced and supported in the S&T planning, programming, budgeting, and assessment activities of the Department. They also consider recent technology forecasts such as the Air Force's New World Vistas, the Army's Force XXI, and the Marines' Sea Dragon. These plans are published annually to guide the Services and defense agencies in preparing their S&T budgets and Program Objective Memoranda. The elements of the DoD S&T program are planned, programmed, and conducted by the Services and the defense agencies. These detailed component plans are complementary extensions of the DoD S&T strategic plans. The Services are responsible for training and equipping the military forces; they use the S&T program to provide warfighting and system options for their components. The Defense Special Weapons Agency (DSWA) and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) execute designated programs in support of national security objectives and are responsible for specific generic and cross-service aspects of S&T. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is charged with seeking breakthrough concepts and technology. The United States Special Operations Command also executes technology efforts to meet unique needs of special operations forces.
PROVIDING FUTURE JOINT WARFIGHTING CAPABILITIES
DoD implemented two initiatives to strengthen the linkage between the science
and technology program and future joint warfighting capabilities. The first
is the Advanced Battlespace Information System (ABIS) study, which focused
on applying advanced information technology to the future joint battlespace.
The second is the Joint Warfighting S&T Plan, which provides the strategic
link between the S&T program and Joint Vision 2010.
The first initiative was a detailed study into the framework for an ABIS exploiting the rapid advances in information technology. It was a collaborative effort by the warfighting community sponsored by the Joint Staff's Director for Command, Control, Communications, and Computer Systems (J6) and DDR&E. The goal was to craft a common information framework for building the underlying information grid needed to maintain military dominance in the next century. The study defined the detailed information needs of the warfighter, the current limitations in U.S. capabilities to meet those needs, and the underlying technologies that DoD must advance to overcome those limitations. The detailed structure of the ABIS information grid is anticipated to evolve incrementally through a series of research initiatives, technology demonstrations, and operational experiments to ensure that both revolutionary and incremental technology improvements are inserted into the ABIS structure as soon as possible. Recommendations on the ABIS framework and supporting technology initiatives were incorporated into the Information Superiority section of the Joint Warfighting S&T Plan (JWSTP).
The JWSTP takes a joint perspective horizontally across the Services and agencies to ensure that the S&T program supports each of a set of high priority Joint Warfighting Capability Objectives (JWCOs) endorsed by the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC). The JWSTP summarizes the S&T efforts supporting each of these JWCOs. The JWCOs, developed through collaboration between the Joint Staff, Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Services, represent some of the most critical capabilities for maintaining the U.S. warfighting advantage. They are derived from the future capability needs identified in Joint Vision 2010, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff annual Program Assessment and Program Recommendation, and the work of the Joint Staff's Joint Warfighting Capabilities Assessment (JWCA) teams. The JROC endorsed the following set of 10 JWCOs for the FY 1998 second edition of the JWSTP.
Information Superiority
The Services and DARPA are pursuing many technologies aimed at enhancing the capability to operate inside an adversary's decision loop by obtaining information superiority. The Services are developing the underlying technology to permit information sharing through robust and mobile battlefield networks while assuring survivability of those networks and other U.S. information systems. The Army, Air Force, and DARPA are jointly developing technologies for secure, high capacity direct satellite broadcast communications to theater warfighters that were demonstrated in Bosnia. The microelectronics devices and systems technologies that will enable the migration of small, lightweight information systems from fixed command centers to mobile platforms and the pockets and palms of combatants are being developed. DARPA and the Services are developing the software technologies and tools necessary to transform sensor and intelligence data into useful information for the warfighter and disseminate it to the right place at the right time. DARPA's planning, replanning, and dynamic retasking technologies will enable warfighters to quickly develop, evaluate, disseminate, execute, and monitor courses of action tailored for the particular situation. The joint Services and DARPA Speakeasy program to demonstrate an advanced multimode digital radio to provide common communications between Services and allies will provide an important joint and coalition warfighting capability.
Precision Force
The capability to destroy selected targets anywhere within a theater of operations while limiting collateral damage draws upon multiple technology areas. The Precision Force concept emphasizes high-value and time-critical targets. The Services are advancing data fusion, automatic target recognition, and precision location technologies so that weapons can find the type of target specified or even the particular target specified and hit the target quickly. For example, DARPA and the Air Force are demonstrating new radar signal processing and target recognition algorithms that can rapidly identify critical mobile targets with low false alarm rates for potential upgrades to Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and other radar surveillance aircraft. Use of three dimensional information from a laser radar is proving to be a promising approach for automatic target recognition.
The Army's Rapid Force Projection Initiative for air- deployed early entry forces will demonstrate the technology for finding and identifying enemy forces through command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) linkage and then destroying high priority targets, including armored vehicles, using lightweight precision guided missiles that exploit technologies such as teleoperation and Global Positioning System (GPS) self-location for non-line-of-sight engagements. For precision destruction of hardened fixed targets in fewer aircraft sorties, the Air Force will demonstrate 250 pound small smart bombs with antijamming guidance which could replace the current 1,000 pound penetrating bombs for many targets. The Navy will demonstrate technologies to redirect aircraft and cruise missiles after launch, exploiting real-time targeting updates. DARPA and Navy technology efforts are supporting the concept of an arsenal ship which could provide a large magazine of precision weapons to support land and littoral engagements. Technology demonstrations will include an advanced vertical missile launcher demonstration and demonstrations of the command, control, and communications needed to rapidly target and remotely launch missiles from an arsenal ship.
Combat Identification
Providing an accurate combat identification capability requires an integrated architecture that includes noncooperative identification, cooperative identification, and improved situational awareness. Improvements in joint warfighting capabilities will be demonstrated utilizing suites of these capabilities on various platforms in joint operational environments. The Joint Combat Identification Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) focuses on demonstrating several select technologies to determine their military utility and evaluate their ability to integrate into existing and future joint battlefield C4I architectures. Significant initial improvement is expected for friendly ground target identification during exercise demonstrations and modeling and simulation efforts in 1997 with the inception of new cooperative identification techniques combined with improved situational awareness. The Army Combat Identification demonstration program uses a millimeter wave interrogation/response system to identify friendly systems on the battlefield and is exploring the advancements offered by improved situational awareness derived from battlefield digitization. Air target identification improvements will be achieved by increasing the robustness of overall combat identification capabilities by improving noncooperative techniques, providing more capable data links, adding data fusion capabilities, and increasing the number of equipped platforms. Air Force and Navy combat identification efforts are demonstrating noncooperative target recognition technologies, which include inverse synthetic aperture radar imaging and exploitation of jet engine modulation and unintentional modulations on pulses to identify aircraft types or specific emitters.
Joint Theater Missile Defense
BMDO, DARPA, and the Services are developing technologies to enhance capabilities for defense against theater ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. BMDO is conducting technology demonstrations for advanced radar and infrared surveillance systems and interceptor missiles. Advanced radar transmit-receive modules which would double the power per module and increase the range of phased array missile defense radars by over 40 percent are being demonstrated using new high temperature, wide-bandgap semiconductor technologies. BMDO is developing advanced divert propulsion technology for a ship-based interceptor that would be deployable to nearly all theaters. For the Airborne Laser (ABL) program, the Air Force is demonstrating the technology for a long-range airborne laser system that could destroy theater missiles during their boost phase. BMDO is also developing technologies for multimission, space-based chemical lasers that have boost phase intercept of theater ballistic missiles as one application. For cruise missile defense, DARPA is developing both infrared and radar surveillance technologies.
Military Operations in Urban Terrain
For the most part, Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) will identify and adapt technologies that are already available or are currently in development. Robust and interactive C4I is the most critical function capability required in the MOUT environment of the built-up area. DARPA C4I technology efforts will demonstrate by 2000 lightweight power sources and technologies to overcome the limitations on propagation of radio communications and GPS navigation signals in obstructed urban environments. The MOUT ACTD will integrate technologies that address the operational capabilities of engagement and force protection onto the upgraded land warrior system to ensure their adaptability and interoperability. These technologies include advanced individual combat weapon, less-than-lethal technology, ballistic protection, countersurveillance, combat identification, countersniper, and individual medical technologies.
Joint Readiness and Logistics
Advances in distributed simulations, communications, and information management technologies will provide significant improvements in the capability for commanders to plan and rehearse missions; assess the readiness and status of forces; and conduct distributed training of joint and combined staffs. The Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration 1996 exhibited the capability to link models and simulations (M&S) to fielded command and control systems. The Synthetic Theater of War (STOW) ACTD develops and demonstrates M&S technology that can be used by major training simulation programs. A demonstration at the Joint Training, Analysis, and Simulation Center during FY 1997 will show how the object-oriented simulation technology developed under STOW can provide a rehearsal capability for the warfighter. These enhanced M&S capabilities will offer more realistic training and will reduce exercise cost, set-up time, and personnel requirements.
DARPA and the Army are developing and demonstrating real-time logistics control technologies for logistics planning, execution monitoring, and replanning. This allows logistics planning to be conducted concurrently with operational planning and can influence battlefield decisions. They are also developing technologies for distributed logistics information system architectures, measurements of the current logistics status through automatic identification techniques, and access to heterogeneous databases. DoD technology efforts leverage and complement commercial technologies that can be applied to some logistics technology needs and that are used for affordability wherever feasible.
Joint Countermine
The Army, Navy, and Marine Corps are conducting coordinated technology demonstrations including the Joint Countermine ACTD. During FY 1996, the Army successfully demonstrated a hand-held mine detector, which transitioned to an acquisition program. Key components for off-route smart mine clearance were demonstrated and are being considered as product improvements for the heavy breacher. The Navy successfully demonstrated a laser line scan system for shallow water mine detection during a joint field exercise. They successfully tested a new sonar technology with a wide search swath for deep water mine reconnaissance. The Navy also demonstrated deployment of full-scale explosive mine neutralization line charges and arrays from a landing craft, launch and recovery of the remote minehunting system from a surface combatant, and a highly reliable superconducting magnet for influence mine sweeping. Maturing technologies scheduled for near-term demonstrations include the Army vehicle-mounted mine detector and mine hunter-killer and sensor improvements for the Navy remote minehunting system.
Electronic Combat
During the past year, the Electronic Combat area has taken advantage of commercial computing architectures to enable more affordable, integrated hardware/software solutions to the problems of threat location, identification, and overall situation awareness for the warfighter. Demonstrations exploiting those architectures will rapidly proceed into testing during the next two years. Decoys offer an Electronic Combat solution to several mission scenarios; two technology demonstration programs at different stages of execution are being aggressively pursued. A naval ship decoy is nearing the test and evaluation phase to prove its viability in protecting large surface combatants. In partnership with DARPA, the Air Force is beginning an ACTD to demonstrate a low cost dilution decoy that simulates an attacking aircraft and deceives air defenses into tracking and firing on the decoy. A key set of complementary technology demonstrations is focused on countering the lethality of threat weapon systems that rely on infrared guidance. All three Services are cooperating in synergistic development programs that focus on advanced laser-based infrared countermeasure techniques. Major, phased demonstrations are planned in the near future which promise follow-on transitions into engineering development of infrared self-protection countermeasures systems for rotary wing aircraft, large aircraft, and surface ships before the year 2000.
Chemical and Biological Warfare Defense and Protection
Technology demonstrations are underway supporting all three pillars of chemical and biological (CB) defense: contamination avoidance (detection, identification, and warning), force protection (individual, collective, and medical), and decontamination. During FY 1996, the Services accelerated the Joint Chemical Agent Detector program that demonstrated the technology for a pocket-sized chemical agent detector, and then transitioned it into the demonstration/validation phase of development one year ahead of schedule. A chemical and biological agent hazard assessment model for operational use was also demonstrated which will provide the joint warfighter the ability to avoid CB contamination and protect U.S. forces by giving them the earliest possible warning of a CB attack. An ACTD was initiated to demonstrate biological detection and warning, protection, decontamination, and concepts of operation to protect high-value fixed sites like ports and air bases. The Integrated Biological Detection Advanced Technology Demonstration was also initiated in FY 1996 to demonstrate significantly faster detection of biological agents, improved sensitivity, an increased number of detectable agents, and improved logistics support. Further, technology demonstrations include the Joint Warning and Reporting Network, which will provide commanders and military forces with near-real-time assessments and forecasts of nuclear, biological, or chemical (NBC) hazards.
Counter Weapons of Mass Destruction
The Department is developing technologies to both detect the manufacture, storage, and employment of NBC weapons and to destroy weapons, related materials, and facilities. Utilizing its experience in nuclear weapons effects and its field test facilities, DSWA is working with Service laboratories to improve the lethality of conventional weapons for attacking underground facilities. DSWA is also developing advanced models to predict dispersal of NBC agents released into the atmosphere as collateral effects resulting from the destruction of NBC weapons-related facilities. Other technology efforts are developing advanced sensors to support target characterization and battle damage assessment and developing alternative weapons payloads to include high-temperature incendiaries and agent defeat warheads that mitigate the hazards of chemical and biological agents. The key integrated demonstration is the Counterproliferation ACTD, which is demonstrating technologies to defeat shallowly- buried NBC weapons storage and production facilities with minimum collateral damage. This ACTD assesses through field tests against realistic targets the performance of advanced penetrating weapons, void-sensing fuses to detonate weapons in rooms within buried facilities, weapon-borne and unattended ground sensors, and targeting and collateral effects prediction tools.
INVESTING IN TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND DEMONSTRATION
The integrated S&T strategic planning process plays the key role in ensuring that DoD technology investments are focused on the highest payoff areas and that related efforts by the Services and defense agencies are complementary. The Defense Technology Area Plan (DTAP) presents DoD objectives and investment strategy for 10 technology areas critical to DoD acquisition. It takes a horizontal perspective across Service and agency efforts, charting the total DoD-wide investment in Applied Research and Advanced Technology Demonstration for each technology area. The DTAP is drafted by the Defense S&T Reliance Panels, which include representatives from all Services and agencies that have efforts within a technology area.
About 38 percent of the overall DoD S&T investment is for applied research; 46 percent is for advanced technology development; and 16 percent is allocated to basic research. Approximately two-thirds of the funding goes to industry, nonprofit organizations, and academic performers, while one-third goes to defense laboratories. Most of the work is managed by the Services, including work performed for DARPA, DSWA, and BMDO.
The DoD technology program is organized into 10 technology areas based upon technical affinities among related efforts (Table 9). The DoD technology efforts can be presented either in terms of these 10 technology areas under which they are managed or in terms of the warfighting mission application they support. For example, the technology efforts highlighted in the previous section under the Joint Warfighting Capability Objectives that they support are managed within the appropriate one of these 10 DoD technology areas. Representative highlights from the technology areas are presented in the paragraphs below to illustrate the progress and potential of the technology development and demonstration efforts.
| Table
9 |
|
| Information Systems Technology | Human Systems |
| Sensors, Electronics, and Battlespace Environments | Biomedical |
| Air Platforms | Weapons |
| Ground and Sea Vehicles | Chemical/Biological Defense and Nuclear |
| Space Platforms | Materials/Processes |
Information Systems Technology
Information Systems Technology efforts are developing and demonstrating technologies including a flexible architecture that allows use of common software for a variety of decision making software tool kits, seamless communication systems utilizing commercial and common protocols, transparent management and distribution of information among different computer systems, and advanced M&S technologies. Technologies needed to provide a real-time, fused, battlespace picture with integrated decision aids are being developed. The technology efforts will provide the processing infrastructure; the software with artificial intelligence that assists and even anticipates needs for data manipulation and distribution; and the dynamically adaptive, broadband communications links required for both command and control and sensor-to-shooter applications. Accomplishments in decision making technology include the integration of artificial intelligence technology for transportation and deployment planning. A 25-fold improvement in the time required for preparation of time-phased force deployment data has been demonstrated. Accomplishments in seamless communications technology include coordinated demonstrations of asynchronous transfer mode technology for wideband, high-speed communications; development, testing and near-term deployment of a tactical Internet; and the development of a device for end-to-end security encryption of message and data transmissions in the tactical battlefield environment. Accomplishments in software technology include demonstrations of new language-processing capabilities, including speech understanding and automatic extraction and spotting of key words in text messages -- technologies transitioned into hand-held devices used in Bosnia.
Sensors, Electronics, and Battlespace Environments
Sensors, Electronics, and Battlespace Environments technologies under development will provide the eyes, ears, brains, and battlespace awareness for future decision making systems, surveillance and intelligence systems, and tactical and strategic weapons. For example, for long endurance surveillance missions over Bosnia, the detailed radar surveillance of ground activity and long-range communications capability of the Predator UAV have been extremely valuable. Because of the UAV size, weight, and power constraints, installing both a surveillance radar and a satellite communications link in the Predator would not have been feasible without advanced microwave power module technology developed by the Navy. This technology provides a factor of 30 increase in power density and a factor of 10 reduction in volume. Because it operates over a broad frequency range, it offers new opportunities for integrating communications, radar, and electronic combat systems. DARPA, the Army, and the Navy collaborated on developing advanced infrared focal plane array technology for Infrared Search and Track (IRST) sensors. In a sea demonstration, this focal plane technology, combined with advanced signal processing, successfully detected all approaching test missiles with no false alarms. This demonstration enabled the Navy to initiate procurement of an IRST for ship defense which will rapidly detect and track attacking missiles and cue defensive countermeasures.
In Battlespace Environments, advances in the near-term forecasting capability for the natural environment are moving the Department from an era of coping with and avoiding the effects of the environment to an era when U.S. forces can anticipate and exploit the conditions of terrain, oceans, atmosphere, and space. For example, prototype technology for remapping terrain features in near-real-time was used to support the Dayton negotiations on the Bosnia peace accords. This technology was developed by the Army Corps of Engineers and has been transitioned to operational commands to enhance battlefield awareness for ground commanders. For the atmospheric and space environment, the first model of the ionosphere with the resolution needed to assess the operational accuracies of the GPS and the field performance of radio communications was transitioned directly from the laboratory to operational users. This capability will be extended to forecasting future communications conditions and the impact of the space environment on orbiting and terrestrial military systems.
Air Platforms
The Air Platforms technology includes development of advanced aerodynamics, structures, flight control, and subsystem technologies for both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft and cruise missiles. It also includes advancing the technologies for gas turbine propulsion; ramjets, scramjets and combined cycle engines; and fuels. As one example in advanced gas turbine engine component technology, a carbon-carbon composite bearing cage operated for 32 hours at the operating conditions projected for an advanced limited-life engine. This technology enables design of a lightweight lubrication system which eliminates 25 pounds of hardware from an expendable engine used in UAVs and cruise missiles. In the aircraft structures area, a software package for fatigue crack prediction has been developed to help users more accurately predict the structural life of aging aircraft.
Ground and Sea Vehicles
Recent accomplishments in the Ground and Sea Vehicles technology area include a successful demonstration of a tactical electric vehicle for the Army, Marine Corps, and United States Special Operations Command; incorporation of advanced degaussing technology for protection against magnetic mines and surveillance systems into the New Attack Submarine and the new LPD-17 amphibious ship baseline designs; and successful launch and recovery of a tethered Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) that will be deployed from SSN-688-class submarines. Future technology development will culminate in demonstrations of a mission-reconfigurable UUV having significantly greater endurance; increased payload, stealth, and precision navigation capability; automated ship damage control using artificial intelligence technology to reduce personnel requirements; and affordable, highly survivable ground vehicle systems with multimission capabilities to meet evolving threats and diverse mission requirements.
Space Platforms
Space Platforms technology programs will enhance the lifetime and performance of space systems. Advanced rocket propulsion technologies are being developed to improve the performance, cost, and reliability of space launch systems and increase the maneuvering capability and on-orbit lifetime of satellites. A flight-qualified arcjet propulsion system that was delivered for a space demonstration could increase by an order of magnitude the number of satellite repositioning maneuvers available and add years to on-orbit life. Air Force and BMDO technology demonstrations supporting on-orbit life improvements include advanced space electric power generation, storage, management, and distribution technologies. Improved structural composite materials will reduce the weight up to 30 percent for both space vehicles and launchers and will permit the use of less costly launch vehicles. Advances in heat removal technologies will extend the lifetime of space electronics. One-year testing of an improved mechanical cryogenic cooler that will permit the use in space of new long wavelength infrared sensors for space and earth surveillance has been completed.
Human Systems
The Army's Rotorcraft Pilot's Associate advanced technology demonstration is applying artificial intelligence and advanced computing and decision support technologies to integrate and manage the flow of information from next-generation sensors and the digital battlespace environment to enhance the lethality, survivability, and mission effectiveness of combat helicopters. Technologists from this area, working with specialists from the Materials/Processes and the Biomedical technology areas, are managing a multiservice integrated program developing eye protection against battlespace laser hazards.
Biomedical
The jointly coordinated Biomedical technology program focuses on the delivery of superior technology that sustains warfighting capabilities through the preservation of combatants' health and optimal mission capabilities in the face of battle and nonbattle health threats. Recent accomplishments include demonstration of several candidate vaccines to reduce the threat of biological warfare agents; demonstration of prototype hemostatic bandages that offer potential for significantly greater effectiveness in management of hemorrhage in the field, a leading cause of death from combat trauma; and development of a new antigen microencapsulation process that promotes immunity against a leading cause of diarrheal disease.
Weapons
Development and demonstration of advanced technologies for conventional munitions, electronic warfare, and speed-of-light directed energy weapons (high power lasers and microwaves) are underway. Improvements in hard target penetrator technology have increased the explosive yield to 150 percent of current penetrating weapons and increased the structural toughness of the penetrators by a factor of three. A new technology record was set with an electromagnetic gun firing an experimental antitank projectile at a velocity of over 2.3 kilometers per second. For tactical rocket propulsion, a new propellant formulation with a low detonation hazard rating exceeded the propulsion performance of current propellants that are more susceptible to accidental detonation. In the electronic warfare area, new infrared countermeasures techniques for protecting aircraft against infrared-guided missiles were demonstrated using lasers to selectively jam the infrared seekers of threat missiles. Countermeasures against missiles were also demonstrated using high power microwave technologies.
Chemical/Biological Defense and Nuclear
The Chemical/Biological Defense and Nuclear technology area is developing technologies to ensure superior defensive capabilities to protect U.S. forces and equipment with minimal logistics burden. This objective requires the capability to avoid contamination through early detection and warning of an NBC threat; protective clothing ensembles, respirators, and collective filtration systems to allow for continuous operations in a contaminated environment; and decontamination capability to quickly reconstitute equipment and weapon platforms. DSWA technology efforts are demonstrating microelectronics components ranging from radiation hardened memories capable of operating in the most stressing nuclear weapons environments to integrated components suitable for military and commercial satellites with long on-orbit lifetimes.
Materials/Processes
The Materials/Processes technology area provides key supporting technologies to the platform- and system-oriented technology efforts in the Air Platforms, Space Platforms, Ground and Sea Vehicles, and Sensors, Electronics, and Battlespace Environments technology areas. These supporting materials and processes technology efforts are grouped into four foundation technology subareas: survivability, life extension, and affordability; manufacturing technology; civil engineering; and environmental quality. This technology area includes improved lightweight armor materials for protecting both individual combatants and combat vehicles. Advanced materials for gas turbine engines with the higher operating temperatures and rotating speeds necessary to provide twice the thrust-to-weight ratio or half the specific fuel consumption of current engines are also being developed. For affordable sustainment of aging defense systems, this area includes advanced nondestructive inspection techniques for aging aircraft structures; and improved, environmentally acceptable, materials and processes for metal cleaning, corrosion control, and coating. In the manufacturing technology subarea, flexible design and production of both tactical grade and higher precision navigation grade fiber optic gyroscopes on the same production line are being demonstrated in order to make low-volume defense components comparable in cost to high production rate commercial units.
SUPPORTING BASIC RESEARCH
The Basic Research Plan presents the DoD objectives and investment strategy for DoD-sponsored basic research performed by universities, industry, and Service laboratories. The strategy for supporting world-class research consists of four main components: executing a superior quality, competitive, multifaceted research program; maintaining a flexible and balanced investment portfolio; sustaining an essential research infrastructure; and conducting visionary planning, resource constrained prioritization, and oversight. As industry reduces its investments in truly long-term research, it falls increasingly to the federal government, including DoD, to ensure that quantum jumps in military systems capability resolution from investments in the scientific basis are sustained.
Basic research is the foundation for future technology development. The objective of DoD basic research is to produce knowledge in a science or engineering area that has military potential. In most cases, sustained investments in promising research areas over a number of years are required to advance technologies through successive levels of technology development and demonstration to the maturity required for insertion into DoD systems. However, there are many examples of how the fundamental scientific advances emerging from basic research can enable dramatically new system concepts and capabilities such as visual imaging, lasers, information processing, and global positioning.
About 16 percent of the DoD S&T investment is devoted to basic research. The Services and defense agencies conduct basic research both externally through contracts with universities and industry laboratories, and internally at the DoD laboratories. About 60 percent of that work is done at universities, while defense laboratories perform most of the balance. Research done at universities pays dual dividends. In addition to producing new knowledge of military relevance, this program has long been a principal source of funding to produce graduate scientists and engineers in disciplines important to national defense and economic security.
The University Research Initiative (URI) is a group of basic research programs performed by academic institutions. URI activities help to improve the quality of defense research carried out by universities and support the education of young scientists and engineers in disciplines critical to national defense needs. The Multidisciplinary URI supports teams of researchers investigating selected topics that intersect more than one technical discipline, an approach that can accelerate research progress and speed transition to military applications. Other URI programs fund purchases of major research equipment critical to maintaining university capabilities to perform cutting-edge research, support graduate and undergraduate students on research teams in defense-critical fields, and support fellowships for doctoral students in key physical and engineering sciences.
The DoD basic research investment is focused on 12 disciplines that have a potential relationship to a military function or operation: physics, chemistry, mathematics, computer science, electronics, materials science, mechanics, terrestrial sciences, ocean sciences, atmospheric and space sciences, biological sciences, and cognitive and neural science. Funding decisions for the 12 research areas weigh both technical quality and military relevance. DoD subjects research programs to rigorous merit review.
The Basic Research Plan also presents six Strategic Research Objectives (SROs)
in selected multidisciplinary areas that offer significant and comprehensive
benefit to U.S. military capabilities. The following six SROs hold great
promise for enabling breakthrough technologies for revolutionary 21st century
military capabilities. Advances in these areas could have high payoff
applications to numerous defense systems.
Transition of highly promising research results into defense systems can be relatively rapid in areas like software, theoretical models, and new processes (especially those for microelectronics materials and devices). Major technology advances can sometimes be incorporated into upgraded software without requiring new hardware. For example, the potential payoff from basic research on generalized rate scheduling mathematics was quickly recognized and the technology was transitioned very rapidly into operational software for aircraft sortie planning.
Examples of recent significant accomplishments in DoD-sponsored basic research are presented below. These examples were selected based the substantial technical challenges overcome and the potential military importance.
As an example of the payoffs from research in areas supporting the biomimetics strategic research objective, neuro-computational techniques known to exist in biological vision are being adapted to improve the performance of electronic imaging arrays. Researchers developed retina-like computational algorithms, extended them to infrared imaging arrays, and demonstrated real-time adaptive correction for nonuniformities in an infrared focal plane array.
In research on new microelectronics devices, a new type of memory, a transistorless static random access memory (TSRAM), has been developed. This new technology will be about 10 times faster and 100 times smaller than current static random access memories. This new memory design is also projected to be half the cost of static random access memories and only 10 percent of the size of dynamic random access memories (DRAMs) used in computers today. This TSRAM technology is expected to be inherently far more radiation tolerant than current static random access memories or DRAM technologies, a major advantage for DoD weapon systems and military and commercial satellites.
Research on new nonlinear optical polymers for potential use in active and passive optical waveguides is being immediately transitioned into an advanced technology demonstration of an extremely compact but highly accurate fiber optic gyroscope for precision strike navigation for aircraft, missiles, or precision-guided munitions. This new polymer allows optical control functions to be integrated directly onto a silicon microcircuit chip using a low temperature process that is very attractive for low cost mass production on six inch silicon wafers.
In the materials research area, a new super hard material, second only to diamond in hardness, has been created. The new crystalline composite material containing layers of the new super hard compound carbon nitride has a wide range of potential DoD applications as a coating for devices requiring high protection against friction wear, erosion by particles, or corrosion.
Another research effort has developed a new low cost joining method for bonding dissimilar materials, particularly composites. This new joining technique, called diffusion-enhanced adhesion, offers an affordable, low pressure, low temperature process that could reduce tooling and assembly costs for composite structures. This process is being transitioned to industry and has already been used to bond major thermoplastic and thermoset composite structural components for the Army's composite armored vehicle technology demonstration program.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES
In addition to the S&T strategic planning initiatives discussed previously, there are S&T management initiatives to focus resources on several critical areas supporting the overall S&T program and to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the DoD laboratories.
The first of these initiatives is the DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) that establishes a world-class, nation-wide, integrated, high-performance computing infrastructure supporting the high-end computational needs of the defense research, development, and test and evaluation communities. High performance computing is essential for designing and developing advanced technology weapon systems. It enables scientists and engineers to solve computation-intensive problems that could not be solved before. Some examples are calculations of stealth signatures to reduce detectability across the electromagnetic spectrum, more accurate modeling at the molecular level of the flow of air or water across the surface of weapon systems, and improved sea lane weather prediction. For Operation Desert Storm, high performance computing was used, on an urgent basis, to design a new deep-penetrating bomb for attacking deeply-buried enemy bunkers and to visualize the complex electronic battlefield. In addition, computational models can replace live testing in some instances. Simulated tests can lower costs, speedup system development, avoid environmental impacts, and reduce risk to prototypes.
The HPCMP has four elements. The first element is creation of Major Shared Resource Centers with multiple, very high performance computers and expert staffs at four locations: the Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen, Maryland; the Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; the Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, Mississippi; and the Naval Oceanographic Office, Stennis Space Center, Hancock County, Mississippi. The second element is support for 12 distributed centers located across the country, which have smaller high-performance computers that develop and test applications for particular high-end users. Connecting these centers will be the third element, a high speed, high bandwidth Defense Research and Engineering Network that will provide wide-area networking and will include gateways to many existing military and civilian networks. The fourth element is software support, including development of application software building blocks, visualization tools, and mathematical libraries so that users can take maximum advantage of HPCMP capabilities.
Under the leadership of the Defense Modeling and Simulation Office (DMSO), the Department has taken the initiative to exploit the rapid advances in M&S technology to enhance DoD activities ranging from technology development and demonstration through system acquisition to simulation for training and exercises. The DoD Modeling and Simulation Master Plan, developed by DMSO in coordination with the Services and defense agencies, lays out the integrated plan for the development of interoperable M&S capabilities throughout the Department. DMSO has taken the lead in defining a common technical framework for M&S to facilitate interoperability, data interchange, and reuse of models and simulations. The key element of this common technical framework, the High Level Architecture (HLA), has now been approved. Compliance with the HLA during the time span of the S&T plans is now DoD policy. This architecture will be implemented in the STOW ACTD; in the Joint Simulation System (JSIMS); in the Joint Warfare System (JWARS); and in all future simulation development.
To strengthen the emphasis on affordability in the DoD S&T program, DDR&E chartered an S&T Affordability Task Force to identify mechanisms for focusing S&T programs on obtaining manufacturing process maturity as early as possible in the acquisition cycle. The task force identified the use of Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD), including Integrated Product Teams (IPTs), as the single most powerful tool for assuring a focus on affordability in S&T program management. As a result, an S&T Affordability Policy has been published and implementation is underway, including reviews of advanced technology demonstrations for affordability content, designation of specific S&T programs as affordability programs, and education and training for S&T program managers in affordability and the use of IPPD and IPTs.
The Department's Technology Transfer Program is focused on creating partnerships between the defense laboratories and the private sector, working through mechanisms like Cooperative Research and Development Agreements, to bring commercial technology into defense systems and transfer dual-use technology to the private sector. Designated personnel within each Defense R&D facility are responsible for seeking opportunities to match defense and commercial technology needs. A Defense Technology Transfer Information System has been established to help match technology needs with ongoing activities. Best practices and lessons learned from throughout DoD are being identified, and mechanisms to share this information are being developed.
The Department has also been pursuing business process reengineering initiatives to improve the operations of the DoD laboratory infrastructure. The Laboratory Quality Improvement Program (LQIP) has fostered a series of reinvention initiatives, some of which have required congressional action for implementation. These initiatives are intended to increase the effectiveness and technical capabilities of the DoD laboratories by eliminating irrelevant, outdated, or duplicative regulations. One example of an LQIP initiative was the provision in the FY 1995 Defense Authorization Act that allows the S&T Reinvention Laboratories to design alternative personnel systems to improve the ability of the DoD laboratories to recruit, promote, and retain the best scientific and engineering talent available. A second example is the provision in the FY 1996 Defense Authorization Act which raises the minor military construction thresholds and which will greatly streamline and improve the efficiency of local modernization projects at laboratory sites.
For the longer term, the Department has embarked on the preparation of a plan called Vision 21 for the reduction, restructuring, and revitalization of its laboratories and test and evaluation centers. This plan will ensure that the DoD laboratories continue to provide the technology required for warfighting superiority and do so in the most efficient manner possible. The Vision 21 plan will include consideration of both intraservice and cross-service opportunities for reduction, restructuring, and revitalization. Because the historical rate of investment in laboratory facilities has been inadequate, a critical component of the plan will be revitalization of the physical facilities of the laboratories to allow them to meet the rapidly changing requirements for defense technology.
CONCLUSION
To maintain technological superiority -- a principal characteristic of the U.S. military advantage -- the DoD S&T program must continue to invent, develop, and harness technology to realize new warfighting capabilities. Major initiatives are underway to enhance the Department's corporate planning process for the DoD S&T program and to strengthen the linkage to future joint warfighting capabilities. Significant technology advances have been made during the past year, some of which are already being transitioned to enhance the capabilities of current systems and some of which will have major payoffs in enhanced warfighting capabilities in the longer term. Rapid advances in areas such as information technologies and sensor and electronic technologies offer opportunities to ensure that U.S. forces maintain their technological edge over advanced technology systems that are becoming increasingly available to potential adversaries. Maintaining this momentum to preserve the U.S. technological edge through sustained DoD investment in science and technology is crucial for the future of U.S. military forces.
