Defense Science and Technology Strategy.
Abstract
During the Cold War, the United States faced a single overarching threat that dominated every aspect of military force planning and strategic thinking. During this era we relied upon technologically superior systems to offset the Soviet Bloc's numerically larger forces. Today, this single overarching threat has been replaced by new dangers, such as the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, regional conflict, and ethnic violence. Our strategy for managing these post-Cold War dangers to our security rests on three basic lines of defense. The first line of defense is to prevent threats from emerging; the second is to deter threats that do emerge; and the third, if prevention and deterrence fail, is to defeat the threat to our security by using military force. Executing this strategy requires us to maintain strong, ready military forces equipped with a well-integrated, flexible mix of the most advanced technologies. With today's smaller force structure, readiness and modernization become even more critical to our overall military capabilities. However, we do not seek mere technological superiority. Instead, we seek a force that is capable of dominating any potential foe across the full spectrum of military operations -- dominance allows us to win quickly, decisively and with minimal casualties. We saw this kind of dominance in action during Desert Storm, using stealth, smart weapons and advanced sensors -- technologies developed primarily during the Cold War. In future conflicts, information technologies will play a critical role in achieving the dominance we seek. That presents several challenges. We must develop the communications, sensors and computing systems to capture, synthesize and distribute near-real time information to all levels of operations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA323116
Entities
Organizations
- Office of the Director