House Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities Hearing
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Chairman Thornberry, Ranking Member Langevin, members of the Committee, I am pleased to come before you today to testify about the state of the
INTRODUCTION
The FY 2015 budget request for science and technology (S&T) n1 is relatively stable, when compared to the overall DoD top line n2 and modernization accounts. The DoD S&T request is
Simultaneous with the challenges of balancing a reduced budget and continuing to engage the total defense workforce in meaningful research and engineering (R&E), the capability challenges to our R&E program are also increasing. This is attributable to changes in the global S&T landscape and the acceleration globally of development of advanced military capabilities that could impact the superiority of US systems. The convergence of declining budgets, in real terms, and increased risk is not a comfortable place to be. However, as I will highlight in the latter sections of my statement, the Department has begun to reshape the focus of our technical programs to address some of our new challenges. We are also beginning to shift our programs to better position the Department to meet our national security challenges. Finally, we have some areas where we need your help in order to be successful executing our FY 2015 budget. I will cover these areas at the end of my statement.
FY 2015 PRESIDENT'S BUDGET REQUEST
The current fiscal environment presents significant challenges to the DoD budget. The Department is in the third year of a protracted overall topline and RDT&E budget drawdown. As highlighted by Secretary Hagel, there are three major areas that comprise the Department's budget: force size, readiness, and modernization. The current budget is driving a force reduction, but this reduction will take several years to yield significant savings. In the FY 2015 budget, readiness and/or modernization will pay a larger percentage of the "bill". As a former airman who entered service in the 1970's, I am very well aware of what happens when savings are gleaned from readiness - the hollow force is not acceptable. Over the next several years of the budget we expect modernization accounts (Procurement and RDT&E) to pay a large portion of the Department's fiscal reduction bill. At the same time, Secretary Hagel's strategy is to protect advanced technologies and capabilities. The FY 2015 budget must balance all of these drivers; we believe we have done well, but do acknowledge there is increased risk.
The last several budgets have been characterized by instability and rapid decline of the modernization accounts. The FY 2013 sequestration reduced all accounts by 8.7%; for S&T, this amounted to a loss of about
One of the key points for S&T of the FY 2015 budget is a shift in focus at the macro scale from basic research to advanced technology development and a shift from the Services to
PBR 2014 ($M) PBR 2015 (FY 14 CY $M) % Real Change from PBR 2014 (FY 14 CY $)
DoD S&T 11,984 11,515 (11,311) -5.61%
DoD R&E (BAs 1 - 4) 24,041 23,849 (23,427) -2.55%
DoD
Table 1-- Defense Budget for Science &Technology; Research & Engineering; and DoD Top Line Budget (President's Budget Request 2014 compared to 2015.
Science & Technology PBR 2014 $M PBR 2015 (FY 14 CY $M) % Real Change from PBR 2014 (FY 14 CY $)
Chem Bio Defense Program (CBDP) 449 407 (400) -11.02%
Other Defense Agencies 1,389 1,290 (1,267) -8.74%
DoD S&T 11,984 11,515 (11,311) -5.61%
Table 2 - Service and Agencies S&T Budgets (President's Budget Request 2014 compared to 2015)
Research and Development is not a Variable Cost
Over the past decade, the R&D accounts have been quite variable, but this counters one of the key tenets of R&D investment made by the Honorable
R&D is not a variable cost. R&D drives our rate of modernization. It has nothing to do with the size of the force structure. So, when you cut R&D, you are cutting your ability to modernize on a certain time scale, period -- no matter how big your force structure is. n4
If we don't do the research and development for a new system than the number of systems of that type we will have is zero. It is not variable.
Secretary Kendall said it this way:
[T]he investments we're making now in technology are going to give us the forces that we're going to have in the future. The forces we have now came out of investments that were made, to some extent, in the 80s and 90s...if you give up the time it takes for lead time to get...a capability, you are not going to get that back." n5
There is another trend impacting the Department's ability to deliver advanced capabilities. Recent data from the
Most of U.S. basic research is conducted at universities and colleges and funded by the federal government. However, the largest share of U.S. total R&D is development, which is largely performed by the business sector. The business sector also performs the majority of applied research. n6
This implies that DoD needs to be more cognizant of industry R&D as part of our overall capability development and remain sensitive to the importance of federally funded academic research. We continue to push in these areas through our continued support of the university research portfolio and our recent emphasis on
Figure 1 - Changes in US GDP and R&D by Performer n7
SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING WORKFORCE
The Department's scientist and engineering (S&E) workforce consists of in-house labs, engineering centers, test ranges, acquisition program offices and so forth, and is augmented by our partners in the federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) and University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs). The talented scientists and engineers working within these organizations form the foundation of the Department's technology base and are responsible for conceiving and executing programs from basic research through demilitarization of weapon systems. The technical health of this workforce is a priority for me and the Department.
Our in-house labs have been designated by
Data from the Strategic Human Capital Workforce Plan published in
Although anecdotal, we are seeing a trend in why younger workers may be leaving. We saw a number of young scientists and engineers leave in 2013, early in their career. In conducting exit interviews, our laboratory directors reported that these young workers consistently cited travel and conference restrictions, as well as perceived instability of a long term career as motivating factors for their departure. This information, although anecdotal, is of concern; consequently, we are attempting to gather data to see if we can discern a definite signal.
Another area of significant Department and national interest is building a robust science and engineering workforce through various Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) initiatives. My office recently created the STEM Executive Board who has the authority and continues to provide strategic leadership for the Department's STEM initiatives.
Significant change to the Federal portfolio of STEM programs has occurred over the past year. In response to the requirements of the America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2010, Federal STEM-education programs were reorganized with the goals of greater coherence, efficiency, ease of evaluation, and focus on the highest priorities. This resulted in the Federal STEM Education 5-Year Strategic Plan designating the Smithsonian,
We are also developing department-wide guidance on STEM program evaluation, coordinating within the Department and across the Federal government to improve effectiveness and efficiencies in these investments in future workforce needs. A DoD STEM Annual Report, expected to be delivered in FY 2015 based on FY 2014 data, will communicate the activities and results in achieving Departmental goals.
In summary, budget constraints, furloughs, and conference and travel restrictions have contributed to a drain on our most valuable resource - people. To replace our losses and rebuild our workforce for the future, we are working on bringing stability back to our S&E programs, give our people challenging while enriching environments in which to work.
CHALLENGES TO MAINTAINING TECHNOLOGICAL SUPERORITY
In short, the Department and Nation are at a strategic crossroads--the funds available to the Department (and national security infrastructure in general) are decreasing, while the complexity and depth of the national security challenges are growing. The world we live in is an uncertain place. Secretary Hagel said it best in his recent roll out of the FY 2015 budget:
"The development and proliferation of more advanced military technologies by other nations that means that we are entering an era where American dominance on the seas, in the skies, and in space can no longer be taken for granted." n8
Secretary Hagel went on to say:
"To fulfill this strategy DoD will continue to shift its operational focus and forces to the
Global Changes in
1) Many technologies of importance to the Department's capability developments are driven by the commercial sector, and have become a global commodity.
2) The pace of maturation of technology is accelerating; that is, technology maturation occurs on a more rapid scale than in the past.
Our DoD S&T community needs to identify areas where technology has become a global commodity and not expend resources working to develop the same capability. We must track global technology developments, harness them and apply the technology to our needs. This year, we have initiated a project at the
We already know that industry drives most microelectronics and semiconductors development; older infrared focal planes, routine communications, computers. The technology coming from these sectors is sufficient to meet most DoD capability needs. The DoD should be an adopter, not a leader in these areas while addressing the unique security concerns of these technologies used in our military, cyber and IT systems. The DoD should focus our research in technology integration or in developing technologies into products at performance levels beyond those commercially available or planned. Examples would include electronic travelling wave tubes (led by
At the same time, we know that the time to mature many technologies is decreasing. We have seen the time from invention to market penetration decrease by a factor of two over the past half century. Consequently, I would like to cite comments made by Mr.
"The effects of time (lost) cannot be reversed. It is well understood in the R&D community, and most particularly in the S&T community, that the investments we make today may not result in capability for a generation. It takes upwards of 5, 10, even 20 years to develop a new system, test it, and put it into production. By taking higher risks and accepting inefficiencies and higher costs we can reduce the "time to market" of new weapon systems; in fact, we have reduced this time ... with reforms put in place in recent years."
Even during
Capability Changes to DoD Technology Superiority. More significant than the changes in how technology is developed and delivered globally are changes in military capabilities being developed by other nations.
I will cite just one example; there are many more. The convergence of advanced digital signals and computer processing has given rise to proliferation of a new class of system--the digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) jammer. DRFM jammers are fairly inexpensive electronic systems that ingest the radar (or communications) signal, analyze the digital waveform, and then generate random signals, with the same waveform, back to the transmitting radar receiver. The result is the radar system sees a large number of "electronic" targets. If the US employed conventional weapons systems using the traditional methods, we could shoot at or chase a lot of false targets. The consequence is that the US needs to develop a counter to DRFM jammers.
The convergence of computer processing, digital signal processing, digital electronics, optical fibers, and precise timekeeping are giving rise to inexpensive enablers that can improve the ability to counter conventional weapons platforms. We are starting to see other nations advance technologies to counter US overmatch by combining the components listed above to enhance capabilities in electronic warfare, longer range air-to-air missiles, radars operating in non-conventional bandwidths, counter-space capabilities, longer range and more accurate ballistic and cruise missiles, improved undersea warfare capabilities, as well as cyber and information operations. We see these types of new capabilities emerging from many countries; to include
Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The 2013 National Security Interests published by the Chairman of the
Vulnerability of the US Surface Fleet and Forward Bases in the
The People's
US Air Dominance. We see the same trend--development of systems to push US freedom of movement further from the
Vulnerability of US Satellites in Space.
Research and Engineering Strategy
To address the challenges of an accelerating, globalized research and development environment coupled with pressurized DoD budgets and the rapid growth of capabilities in other nations, we needed to examine the strategy we are using to focus the DoD investment on high priority areas. n11 To develop the research and engineering strategy, we had to go back to first principals. Why does the Department conduct research and engineering? What does the Department expect the DoD R&E program to deliver? After examination, we contend the Department conducts research and engineering for three reasons, in priority order:
1) Mitigate new and emerging threat capabilities--the Department must defend the homeland and overseas forces and national interests against threats that exist today, and threats that are still in development.
2) Affordably enable new or extended capabilities in existing military systems--Coincident with a tighter budget, and the fact that time is not recoverable, the DoD R&E program should focus on controlling costs, both in existing and future weapons systems.
3) Develop technology surprise--Finally, throughout the past century, the nation and the Department have looked to the Department's R&E program to continually develop and mature new capabilities that surprise potential adversaries.
Priority 1: Mitigating or Eliminating New and Emerging Threats to National Security
The Department must be prepared to meet its current and future national security missions, which include defending the homeland, securing freedom of navigation, and being able to project power. The research and engineering priorities inherent in this principal also include protecting the nation against nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, from both state and non- state actors. This principal also includes protecting the nation against new threats, such as cyber operations and the proliferation of cruise missiles and UAVs. The final emerging vector in this area is to find solutions to the new capabilities that would prevent the US armed forces from fulfilling our global mission, such as electronic warfare and maintaining space capabilities.
Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (C-WMD). The Department's investment in countering weapons of mass destruction is made primarily by the
Emerging trends over the last year includes the need to counter threats as far "upstream" or left of event as possible. Therefore, the entire C-WMD community is strengthening their program to interdict / render safe WMD before they are used.
Missile Defense. In FY 2015, the investment in missile defense S&T dropped from roughly
Although not a capability that will be fielded soon, the
A strategy based on only kinetic defense which requires a high-end US missile intercept against this proliferation of missiles is cost-imposing on
Cyber and information operations. The Department's investment in Cyber S&T in FY 2015 is
This year, the Department rebuilt the cyber S&T investment around warfighting capability requirements. We have then built a strong integrated technical foundation across the Cyber research and engineering enterprise through our
Though challenges remain in all areas, Cyber S&T is making progress and having significant impacts. Over the past few years, our cyber investments, from fundamental research through advanced technology demonstrations have resulted in many successes that directly benefit our warfighters and the broader defense enterprise. Some highlights are:
. Securing our telecommunications infrastructure through vulnerability assessment, tool development, and best practice dissemination;
. Developing technologies to accurately geo-locate illicit commercial wireless devices to protect our networks;
. Producing a game-changing approach to signature-free malware detection capable of defending against zero-day attacks;
. Designing a flexible, mission-based interoperability framework enabling rapid, low-cost capability integration for our cyber operation forces; and
. Developing tools and techniques that assure the secure operation of microprocessors within our weapons platforms and systems.
This year, in concert with White House Priorities n12, we created the Cyber Transition to Practice (CTP) Initiative. The goal of this initiative is to mature and ultimately transition S&T products to operational use. The development of cyber tools frequently happens on a time scale much less than the traditional acquisition process. The CTP initiative is intended to accelerate fielding of cyber tools.
Loss of Assured Space. Other nations have developed both kinetic and non-kinetic means to degrade or deny the US space layer. Consequently, the DoD S&T program is working on developing the space capabilities our forces rely on whether or not the space layer exists. The capability may be degraded, but will also not be vulnerable. Other nations are seeking to asymmetrically disrupt our military capabilities that depend upon assured satellite communications; global systems for positioning, navigation, and timing; and on-demand ISR, even in denied areas. The US will respond to these actions through increasing the resilience of our space assets so they are free from interference as well as develop alternative means to deliver the capabilities we currently obtain from our space assets.
Current technologies in development include, but are not limited to the following: improving our space situational awareness capabilities employing improved ground- and space-based systems (such as the
Electronic warfare (both attack and protection). The Department's investment in electronic warfare (EW) S&T is about
Electronic warfare is becoming important and more critical because the enabling technologies underlying frequency and complexity are progressing very rapidly. To address the underlying technologies, the components have coalesced around a concept called Advanced Components for EW (ACE), which is focusing on Integrated Photonic Circuits, Millimeter Wave,
In addition to the underlying technology, the Services are involved in building advanced electronic systems. We will cover two of them. The
The Home on GPS-Jam (HOG-J) is a small munition that will identify foreign GPS jammers and vector the munition into the jammer. HOG-J has had some preliminary successful tests, and could be ready to enter the inventory in 2-3 years. There are other EW systems that could be covered at the appropriate security level.
Priority 2: Affordably Enabling New or Extending Military Capabilities
The cost of Defense acquisition systems continues to be a challenge for the Department. Over the past three years, the Department introduced "
Systems engineering. The Department's systems engineering capability and capacity are critical to enabling affordability across the system life cycle of an acquisition program. The Department's systems engineers drive affordable designs, develop technical plans and specifications to support cost-effective procurement, and conduct trade-off analyses to meet program cost, schedule and performance requirements. Systems engineers are enabling strategies to identify opportunities to reduce life-cycle costs. My organization has taken a lead role in improving the Department's ability to achieve affordable programs through strong SE policy, guidance, dissemination of best practices, execution oversight and support for a healthy, qualified engineering workforce.
Through an emphasis on affordability in recently updated policy and guidance, the Department has established a clear role for systems engineers in defining, establishing, and achieving affordability goals and processes throughout the life cycle. Through required systems engineering trade space analyses, individual acquisition programs establish the cost, schedule and affordability drivers and can demonstrate the cost-effective design point for the program. These trade space analyses will be conducted across the program's lifecycle to continuously assess system affordability and technical feasibility to support requirements, investments, and acquisition decisions and depict the relationships between system life-cycle cost and the system's performance requirements, design parameters, and delivery schedules. Recent emphasis on better reliability engineering has focused the Department's acquisition programs on reducing overall lifecycle costs. My systems engineering staff maintains regular and frequent engagement with acquisition programs to support the planning and execution of effective technical risk management, as well as affordability considerations. They provide regular oversight and guidance to assist the programs as they mature through the lifecycle.
Developmental Test and Evaluation. Developmental Test and Evaluation (DT&E) efforts focus on engaging major acquisition programs early in their lifecycle to ensure efficient and effective test strategies, thereby ensuring a better understanding of program technical risks and opportunities before major milestone decisions. In 2013, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Developmental Test and Engineering (DASD(DTE)) introduced the "shift left" concept--specifically to drive DT earlier in the acquisition process. Early DT&E engagement with programs not only reduces acquisition costs through efficient testing, but finding and fixing deficiencies early, well before production and operations, drastically reduces overall lifecycle costs. The DASD(DT&E) is focusing on a few key areas to improve the overall effectiveness of developmental test and evaluation; use of the Developmental Evaluation Framework, increased emphasis on testing in a mission context, earlier cyber security testing, and an increased emphasis on system reliability testing.
The Developmental Evaluation Framework is a disciplined process that results in a clear linkage between program decisions, capability evaluation, evaluation information needs, and test designs. Using the Developmental Evaluation Framework provides an efficient, yet rigorous T&E strategy to inform the program's decisions. Developmental Test and Evaluation is also moving beyond the traditional technical test focus to include testing in a mission context to characterize capabilities and limitations before production. Robust DT&E should also include early cyber security testing that previously was not tested until late in the acquisition life cycle, where deficiencies are costly to fix. Finally DT&E is focusing on increased system reliability testing. System reliability is a major driver in the affordability of future weapon systems. Improved reliability information early in the program allows acquisition leadership to understand the program technical and cost risks and take steps to improve system reliability and therefore the affordability of the system.
Prototyping. Another way to drive down costs of weapons systems is through the expanded use of prototypes, which we use to prove a concept or system prior to going to formal acquisition. Consequently, in FY 2015, we look to expand the use of developmental and operational prototyping to advance our strategic shift to a greater emphasis on future threats. In FY 2015, the Department's investment in prototypes or prototype like activities is around
A recent example of an operational prototype is Instant Eye, a one pound quad-copter. We outfitted Instant Eye with an electro-optical camera and IR illuminator, bringing a field repairable, overhead surveillance capability to the soldier in the field at a unit cost of less than
Joint Multi-Effects Warhead System (JMEWS) is a good example of a higher-risk, higher reward developmental prototype. The JMEWS project took on the challenge of in-flight targeting and re-tasking of the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM). JMEWS' flexible lethality increases the combat power of these expensive weapons by tailoring the TLAM flight profile for best effect, taking advantage of information often not available until after the weapon has launched. With the developmental prototyping effort demonstrating the essential technical aspects, all that remains for
Throughout the history of the Department, periods of fiscal constraint have been marked by the use of prototypes to mature technology and keep design teams active in advancing the state of practice. We will use prototyping to demonstrate capability early in the acquisition process. Prototyping will also be used to improve capability development methods and manufacturing techniques, evaluate new concepts, and rapidly field initial quantities of new systems. Prototyping's ability to evaluate and reduce technical risk, and clarify the resource picture that drives costs makes it a critical piece of the larger research and engineering strategy. Put simply, by prototyping in research and engineering, we can focus on key knowledge points and burn down the risk before the risk reduction becomes expensive.
Energy and power. Energy and
Unmanned Underwater Vehicles - Air Independent Propulsion (UUV-AIP). The
The Integrated Vehicle Energy Technology (INVENT). The Air Force INVENT program is developing power and thermal management technologies and architectures that not only address today's aircraft performance limits but also work with adaptive cycle engines to enable next generation game changing high power airborne capabilities. There are related Service initiatives to realize higher performance, more fuel efficient designs for rotorcraft and ground vehicles.
Engineered Resilient Systems. To address the need for more affordable and mission-resilient warfighting systems, we are developing an integrated suite of modern computational modeling and simulation (M&S) capabilities and engineering tools aligned with acquisition and operational business processes to transform engineering environments under the Engineered Resilient Systems (ERS) initiative. The ERS tool suite allows warfighters, engineers, and acquisition decision-makers to rapidly assess the cost and performance of potential system designs by providing many data-driven alternatives resulting in systems which are less sensitive to changes in external threats, mission needs, and program constraints. ERS has already demonstrated that the insertion of advanced S&T models, tools and techniques into early phases of engineering processes and decision-making will positively impact effectiveness, affordability and sustainability of defense systems, thus addressing these most critical challenges head on. These new M&S-based frameworks adopt the most advanced design and modeling approaches of government, industry and academia to enable our Nation to meet emergent threat, while insuring that we can do that affordably, today and in an uncertain future.
Priority 3: Creating Technology Surprise Through Science and Engineering
The third and final reason the Department conducts research and engineering is to create surprise to potential adversaries. Previous
The Department invests in a structured way to create surprise. Creation of surprise requires a robust basic research program coupled with a strong applied research. While it is not really possible to know where technology surprise will come from, there are several areas that highlight the possibility; we will discuss several of them in increasing level of maturity. The least mature is quantum science, followed by nanotechnology, autonomous systems, human systems, and then finally, directed energy systems.
Quantum Sciences: The discoveries a century ago of the quantum properties of the atom and the photon defined and propelled most of the new technology of the 20th century - semiconductors, computers, materials, communication, lasers - the technological basis of much of our civilization. Now, the next quantum revolution may define new technological directions for the 21st century, building upon the intersection of quantum science and information theory. Consequently, the DoD is increasing its basic research investment in Quantum Information Science (QIS). QIS exploits our expanded quantum capabilities in the laboratory to engineer new properties and states of matter and light literally at the atomic scale. We are already developing new capabilities in secure communication, ultra-sensitive and high signal to noise physical sensing of the environment, and a path to exponentially faster computing algorithms in special purpose computers. The DoD research funding has driven quantum sciences in the past decade. This funding has led to the demonstration to measure time through cold atom research at 1000 times more accurate than GPS. Using quantum sciences, the DoD is likely within 10 years of fielding an affordable timekeeping system that will cut our tether to GPS. We are building in the laboratory gravity sensors of unprecedented sensitivity, opening the possibility of remote detection of tunnels (or submarines). Other military applications are just being realized, but quantum science is a technology that will provide surprise.
Nanoengineering/Nanotechnology: QIS is based on the ability to control atoms. Nanoengineering also deals with the ability to develop and engineer systems at the molecular level. This will, in turn, lead to new system level capabilities. For instance, one of the limitations to systems like directed energy is thermal management. By designing systems at the molecular level, it is possible to increase thermal management by several orders of magnitude. Materials like "metamaterials" (engineered materials for specific properties) provide a promise of development of radars and electromagnetic systems that operate much more effectively at much broader frequency ranges. Metamaterials are especially intriguing because through clever design and dissimilar materials integration, properties that are never seen in nature's materials may be obtained. An example from the
Autonomy: A major cost driver to the
Human Systems: Previous wars were won by massing power through weapons systems. It is not clear that will be the case in future conflicts. With the proliferation of sensors and data, future conflicts may well be won by the person that can react quickest. Studies of human cognition suggest that cognitive response times can be reduced by using display systems that present information using multiple sensory modalities. Such a reduction would give the force that is enabled with these technologies the ability to process more information, faster than their adversaries. Additionally, we are learning how to tailor training to adapt to individual students' unique needs, leading to reductions in the time needed to acquire expertise. Reducing the time to train forces to an advanced level of competence offers another way to respond faster than our adversaries. Additionally, robots, unmanned vehicles and other advanced technologies continue to be deeply integrated with our warfighters. We are developing new methodologies and technologies to enable our warfighters to interact with these systems as naturally as they do with their human counterparts leading to faster and more accurate responses by these "hybrid teams". Lastly, we are optimizing warfighter physical and cognitive performance for long durations, in dynamic and unpredictable environments, through personalized conditioning and nutritional regimens.
Directed
RELIANCE 21
The Department's Research and Engineering (R&E) Enterprise is wide-ranging, and is the foundation of the Department's technological strength. The enterprise includes DoD laboratories and product centers, other government laboratories, federally funded research and development centers (FFRDC's) and University affiliated research centers (UARCs), US and allied universities, our allied and partner government laboratories, as well as industry. Last year I took the opportunity to brief the members of this Committee as my impetus to develop a strategy for the R&E Enterprise; this strategy was discussed earlier. What is important this year is putting in place the structure to attempt to optimize the S&T investment. Consequently, the Department's S&T Executives and I have worked to put in place Reliance 21. Under Reliance 21, most of the Department's S&T program will be managed in one of 17 cross-cutting portfolios. Each of these portfolios will be made up of Senior Executive or Senior Leader from each
What
We are the most technologically advanced military in the world but, as Secretary Hagel so aptly stated in his remarks on the 24th of February of this year, "we must maintain our technological edge over potential adversaries" n14. I have outlined what we are doing with the resources that we have been given and what we plan to do with the resources in the FY 2015 President's budget. Success, however, will depend on your support. In that regard I have two requests.
I ask that you enact the Research, Development, Test and Evaluation portion of the President's Budget as submitted. We spent a lot of time to balance the program to best meet DoD priorities.
The President's Budget seeks funding for FY 2016-2021 that is above the estimated sequestration levels under current law. As pointed out earlier, with no relief from the BCA in the out years, we expect modernization and readiness accounts to bear the brunt. This would heighten the increased risk we are already seeing. Simply, at that sequestration level, we expect continued erosion of the S&T and RDT&E accounts.
Second, I would ask that you support our efforts in prototyping. We are expanding the use of developmental and operational prototyping in lieu of formal acquisition programs. Throughout the history of the Department, during periods of fiscal constraint, the Department has used prototypes to mature technology and keep design teams intact and moving forward.
Prototyping has another advantage--it allows the Department to build a capability early in the acquisition process, before all the structure affiliated with the acquisition process begins. By prototyping in research and engineering, we can acquire valuable knowledge and buy down risk and lead time to production at relatively low cost.
CLOSING
In summary, the last year has been a challenge to the Department's S&T program. The risk to our force is growing, and the need for the S&T community is likewise increasing. We have shifted our focus to protecting the future by countering anti-access, area-denial threats, addressing the increasing complexity of adversary's weapons systems, shortening the maturation time of developing our own systems, and addressing the erosion of
n1 Science and Technology is defined as program 6, budget activities 1, 2, and 3; frequently called 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 (basic research, applied research, and advanced technology development); Research and Engineering adds
n2 Top line refers to the total funds appropriated by
n3 Remarks by Secretary Hagel on the FY 2015 budget preview in the
n4 Honorable
n5 Kendall,
n6 National Science Board. 2014. Science and Engineering Indicators 2014.
n7
n8 Remarks by Secretary Hagel on the FY 2015 budget preview in the
n9 Hagel,
n10 As of 2013
n11 While the priorities listed below capture the cross-DoD priorities, there are still individual Service priorities they must address. These priorities do not address Naval responsibilities for the Ocean,
n12 This is in direct response to the NSS Cybersecurity FY2014 Budget Priority of
n13 "From Marginal Adjustments to Meaningful Change",pg 64,
n14 Hagel,
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