Work Announces DoD Research, Development Initiative
By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2014 – Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work announced a defensewide innovation initiative to help set the parameters for the department's research and development program.
Work, speaking at the Global Security Summit here, said the initiative mirrors the one held in 1975 that produced 40 years of American military dominance.
The 1975 initiative plowed research and development money into stealth technology, guided munitions and information technology. It called for scientists to blend these technologies together to create an advantage that enabled the United States "to rule the battlefield for the foreseeable future," Work said.
The United States employed "that technological offset strategy for about 40 years," he said, "but it's no longer viable in the face of adversary advances."
U.S. Defense R&D Investments Decreased
In recent years, however, U.S. investment in military technology has decreased, while that of China and Russia is increasing, the deputy defense secretary said.
"China's defense budget has seen double-digit growth nearly every year over the past decade," Work said. Some officials believe China will match the U.S. defense-spending level in the mid-2020s or early 2030s.
"Today, potential challengers are investing heavily in weapons to defeat our traditional ways of operating and our most advanced systems," Work said. "Our technological dominance is no longer assured."
Compared to the closest competitors, DoD is under-investing in new weapon systems.
"What's more, research and development funding is not a variable cost," the deputy defense secretary said. "No matter how many weapons or systems of a particular type we intend to have in our inventory, one or one thousand, we still have to do the R&D."
R&D Time Factor
Another aspect of this, Work said, is time.
"Time is not recoverable -- the time needed to develop, test, and produce a new system is set more by how long it takes to do those processes than by available funding," Work said. "Adding money at some point in the future simply doesn't buy back time."
He noted that it takes 10 to15 years between coming up with an idea to actually fielding a product.
Sequestration Impacts R&D Budget
This gets worse under sequestration -- where officials must take another $23 billion out of R&D over five years.
"The Pentagon's top acquisition official, Frank Kendall, estimates that this would remove around four or five major programs from our future inventory," Work said.
The innovation initiative he announced today will help planners spend money where it will do the most good, Work said. The department, he added, also is trying to re-establish order in the planning, programming, and budgeting execution process, which over the last four years has been overwhelmed by continuing resolutions and budget uncertainty.
Officials also are working to reform the business side of the department to be better stewards of the taxpayers' dollars, the deputy defense secretary said.
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