Defense Science Board 2006 Summer Study on 21st Century Strategic Technology Vectors. Volume 4. Accelerating the Transition of Technologies into U.S. Capabilities
Abstract
"Technological superiority" is a basic U.S. defense strategy - the strategic differentiator. As a result of evolving conditions, the United States can not assume that it will stay ahead of its adversaries by simply spending more on research, development, and procurement. Changes in the acquisition process and the accompanying budget, requirements, testing, and other related processes are required in order to dramatically cut the time it takes to field new systems. But the empirical data (contained herein) show that as the complexity of weapons has greatly increased, and the focus of the acquisition system has continued to push the state-of-the-art to its extreme emphasizing maximum performance at the expense of delivery time and cost the actual schedules for most weapon systems have been increasing. The greatest difference today, and the reason that "this time it will be different," is that the nation is in a long war and soldiers are being killed because it is taking too long to get new equipment to the field. It is this change in "mission need" that will hopefully drive DOD to implement the recommendations of this study. The economic and effectiveness benefits that will come from the shorter cycles will simply be an added benefit.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA467596
Entities
Organizations
- Office Of The Under Secretary Of Defense