Recently, The Hill brought together a group of experts to talk about the future of defense focusing specifically on the next frontier for military flight. It included interviews with congressional leaders, leaders within DoD, along with industry leaders. They highlighted the plans for the future of defense and also touched on the current 2024 budget and where things may change as Congress debates over it. Here are some of the highlights.
R&D and Future Innovation in the U.S.
Research and development is a key theme in national security. Specifically, the United States needs to continue to lead in innovation. There is a real concern with China and the technological advances they have made and the threat to the U.S. During the discussion, John Venable, Senior Research Fellow, Defense Policy, Center for National Defense, The Heritage Foundation highlighted the need to focus on the future of national security and the need not for more fourth-generation fighters, but instead to invest in the future with fifth-generation fighters and the fighters of the future that are currently being designed.
Dr. Roper, Founder & CEO of Istari, highlighted how Formula 1 teams are working to create and innovate digitally allowing them to make faster cars throughout the season. What would have taken weeks or even months can now be completed in a virtual setting. He wants to see this technology transfer over to the military realm. Not only will it make it cheaper and faster to innovate, but there is a problem holding the digital transformation broadly and that is, “to do it, you’ve got to integrate all your models and simulations together because no one single model or simulation represents a complex system on its own.” And having the military do that and share information is something that is currently not happening and it could limit how well these digital technologies could work.
Another reason that Dr. Roper thinks it is important to focus on digital technologies is that this is just the beginning. “It’s not a transformation that is in isolation. It transforms all the industries around it. What a powerful concept … if you look back over history it is technologies that make other technologies that are often the most impactful, they are the exponential curve.” It is so important to be at the lead of these types of innovations if we want to continue to remain dominant in the arena of Air Power.
Competing with China
From Congress, both Sen Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Rep Rob Wittman (R-VA) talked about the importance of innovation and the concern of falling behind China. Sen Duckworth highlighted that the future of defense is no longer linear. Technology is changing at an exponential rate and it is more important to stay on the leading edge of technology. She also mentioned how the area of control is no longer just in the air but also in space as well. Rep Whitman highlighted the concern of falling behind in China and talked about the need to invest more broadly. While Sen Duckworth wouldn’t give a final answer on what cuts she recommended, she did allude to the importance of making the right cuts while investing more in innovation to help the U.S. stay on the leading edge for innovation. Sen Duckworth also highlighted the importance of getting the budget completed on time. Not only does it give stability to those who work in the defense sector, but it also saves money.
Conflict around the world and its impact on the U.S.
Other topics that were highlighted were the importance of supporting Ukraine. They also highlighted the challenge the U.S. and many countries are facing as they work to support Ukraine and are seeing their supply lines dwindle. Other conflicts that were mentioned were the growing threat to Taiwan and all the things happening in Africa that most of the population isn’t aware of. And, of course, it isn’t a talk on national security if you’re not discussing the recent TikTok ban on federal devices.
