Measuring and Maintaining the U.S. Defense Technology Lead

• In Event: Strategic Competition and Technological Superiority

Abstract

The U.S. defense innovation system enjoys tremendous advantages that other countries cannot readily replicate. It has accumulated capabilities over decades of funding and experimentation that dwarf other countries’ efforts, and the incentives to innovate in the United States are not easily replicable elsewhere. The unique U.S. political system favors substitution of technology for labor, openness to new ideas, and competition among decentralized organizations to solve national security challenges. The constant worrying that the United States is losing its defense innovation advantages is simply part of the politics that keep the United States far, far ahead of its potential rivals. The real challenge for the United States is to focus its defense technology investment on the key military missions through which the United States conducts strategic competition. No general “index of technological superiority” matters to U.S. leadership. Instead, specific technologies enable the United States to perform the military missions required for U.S. and allied national defense (or offense). Measuring the lead depends on deciding what missions matter to maintain the lead.

Author

• Charles Eugene Gholz, University of Notre Dame