Maintaining Technology Advantage

Abstract

This program supports the Department's initiatives to Build Sustainable and Long-Term Advantage, and Build a Resilient Joint Force and Defense Ecosystem. This Program Element provides funding to support efforts to maintain the Department of Defense's (DoD)'s technology advantage. Maturing and implementing the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering)'s (OUSD(R&E)) technology priorities requires a healthy and capable National Security Innovation Base (NSIB). Additionally, the targeting of U.S. capabilities by our strategic competitors creates the potential to degrade core U.S. military technological advantages through unwanted technology transfer from the industrial innovation base. The technology transfer, including unclassified technology, threatens DoD's ability to maintain the technology advantage required to support the lethality and survivability of the Joint Force. The DoD is executing a plan to maintain DoD's technology advantage: (1) The DoD is promoting strategic technology investments to promote and protect DoD access to new and innovative technology. These investments provide OUSD(R&E)’s ability to determine strategies for future investments to establish and maintain a robust academic and industrial base capable of creating breakthroughs in key areas of basic research, fostering transition and decreasing time to market, and harvesting technologies within the U.S. innovation ecosystem or with likeminded allies. (2) Ensure the Department's strategic technology investments are protected against unwanted technology transfer by developing and maintaining the tools and techniques that enable the U.S. engage in technology transfer at the time, place, and parties of our choosing. (3) The DoD must combat adversaries' attempts to thwart the U.S. NSIB and associated technology security mechanisms to control technology transfer. The Department will support these three efforts by developing the appropriate suite of analytic tools, a data acquisition strategy, and protection activities across the science and technology (S&T) enterprise and programs to address the threat over the long term. S&T protection focuses on ensuring the integrity of the research enterprise through development of policy and conducting adequate due diligence on researchers. Program Protection Planning includes protection of critical program information, critical components and mission functions, and integrates high level security policies and practical expertise to specific RDA practices, systems engineering activities, secure cyber resilient engineering activities, software assurance activities and risk reduction activities. Through this initiative the Department is maturing system security engineering methodologies to protect controlled unclassified information, to include controlled technical information on contractor networks; improve mitigation of supply chain risk management risks; enhance the use of software assurance capability; improve integration of cybersecurity into the engineering processes through secure cyber resilient engineering; mature processes to identify Critical Program Information integration of defense exportability features; expand software assurance capabilities provided by the Joint Federated Assurance Center (JFAC), established in Sec 937 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2014; and improve program protection planning. This project develops near- and long-term strategies and employs mechanisms to retain the U.S. advantage in current and emerging Critical Technology Areas by addressing the capabilities of the industrial innovation base to develop, test, manufacture, and sustain them. This project also provides support to technology priority leaders in identifying industrial innovation base needs; characterizing and assessing priority technology investments, identifying and mitigating issues and risks impacting the industrial innovation base, and exploiting opportunities to advance technology development, testing, and manufacturing.

Document Details

• Document Type: R2 Budgetary Justification
• Publication Date: Oct 01, 2024
• Source ID: 0605797D8Z_6_0400_PB_2024
• Change Summary Explanation: FY 2024 increase of $2.712 million is comprised of a realignment of $0.788 million to support the Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Serving Institutions program, which is a priority of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)), $0.038 million to support departmental priorities, a technical adjustment of $3.317 million to address the Department's need to develop consistent technology protection guidance and actions across the DoD enterprise by integrating, synchronizing, and deconflicting current and future technology protection guidance and actions applied to technologies supporting DoD military capability and an economic assumption of $0.221 million.
• Service Agency Name: Office of the Secretary Of Defense

Entities

Organizations

• Office of the Secretary of Defense

Tags

Communities of Interest

• Autonomy
• Cyber
• Engineered Resilient Systems (Alumni COI)

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

• Acquisition
• Commerce
• Cybersecurity
• Data Analysis
• Department Of Defense
• Emerging Technology
• Engineering
• Export Controls
• Information Systems
• Intellectual Property
• Manufacturing
• Military Capabilities
• National Security
• Software Assurance
• Supply Chain
• Systems Engineering
• Technology Transfer

Fields of Study

• Computer science

Readers

• Cybersecurity.
• Defense Technology Research and Development.
• Military Science and Technology Research and Modernization.

Technology Areas

• Cyber