Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work has said the U.S. military’s superiority over potential competitors is beginning to wane due to adversaries’ level of investment and efforts to close the operational and technical gap, DoD News reported Wednesday.
Cheryl Pellerin writes Work testified before the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee during a hearing Wednesday alongside William Roper, director of the Strategic Capabilities Office within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and Steven Walker, acting director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Work noted that artificial intelligence, autonomy and big data analytics will help the Defense Department operate stronger joint battle networks across all domains including cyberspace, electronic warfare and electromagnetic spectrum, Pellerin reported.
He added DoD must identify challenges that hinder the testing of new technologies.
Roper told the subcommittee that SCO re-imagines currently fielded military technologies in a push to create new functions and “regain the element of surprise,” according to report.
SCO works to evolve DoD’s playbook by updating systems to cross or blur domains; teaming systems to develop new warfighting concepts; and adapting commercial designs and technologies, Roper said.
Walker testified that DARPA’s work in the ares of physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, material science, electronics and engineering could help make U.S. the source of “strategic surprise,” Pellerin wrote.
He noted his written testimony describes more than a dozen examples of DARPA technologies that are transitioning to the military, the report stated.
