By Cheryl Pellerin
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, March 17, 2015 – This year, the Defense
Department will move aggressively to reverse the trend of chronic underinvestment
in weapons and capabilities, the deputy defense secretary said here today.
Bob Work spoke this morning about defense modernization and
the department’s proposed fiscal year 2016 budget before an audience attending
the McAleese/Credit Suisse Defense Programs Conference.
The bottom line, he said in prepared remarks, is that
“because of budget uncertainty and restrictions imposed by Congress, and
because of our unrelenting focus on the readiness of forward deployed forces,
we're chronically underinvesting in new weapons and capabilities.”
Work added, “That should give all of us pause because our
technological dominance is no longer assured.”
Modernization = Technological Superiority
The U.S. military’s technological superiority is directly
related to its modernization accounts, the deputy secretary said, so this year
the department is moving to redress the long-deferred modernization to stay
ahead of competitors and potential aggressor nations.
Work said the White House has helped by approving about $21
billion in added requirements over the Future Years Defense Program.
“This came with added funding, which has allowed us to make
targeted investments in space control and launch capabilities, missile defense,
cyber, and advanced sensors, communications, and munitions -– all of which are
critical for power projection in contested environments,” he said.
The White House also added funding to help the department
modernize its aging nuclear deterrent force, Work said.
Supporting Ongoing Operations
The department’s fiscal 2016 base budget request is $534
billion, or $36 billion above the FY16 sequestration caps, he said, adding that
it’s “only the first year of a five-year Future Years Defense Program. When
considering fiscal years 2016 through 2020, our planned program is
approximately $154 billion over the sequestration caps.”
The department also is asking for $51 billion in overseas
contingency operations funding, Work said, “to support our campaign against the
extremist [Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant], ongoing operations in
Afghanistan, and other operations in the Central Command area of
responsibility.”
The global demand for U.S. forces remains high, particularly
for deployable headquarters units, intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance assets, missile defense, and naval and aerospace forces. The
global operating tempo also remains high, he added.
Together, the deputy secretary said, these requests provide
funding needed to recover readiness over the next several years, invest in
long-deferred recapitalization and modernization, and meet global demands
placed on the military by the National Security Strategy.
The Ragged Edge
“The leaders of this department believe firmly that any
significant reduction in funding below what is in the president's budget, or a
broad denial of the reform initiatives that we have proposed to Congress, would
mean the risks to our defense strategy would become unmanageable,” the deputy
secretary said.
“Quite frankly,” he added, “we’re at the ragged edge of what
is manageable.”
Adding to the pressure on defense systems, potential
competitors are developing capabilities that challenge the U.S. military in all
domains that put space assets and the command and control system at risk, Work
said.
“We see several nations developing capabilities that
threaten to erode our long-assured technological overmatch and our ability to
project power,” he added.
These include new and advanced anti-ship and anti-air
missiles, and new counter-space, cyber, electronic warfare, undersea and air
attack capabilities, Work said.
Erosion of Technical Superiority
In some areas, he added, “we see levels of new weapons
development that we haven’t seen since the mid-1980s, near the peak of the
Soviet Union’s surge in Cold War defense spending.”
The department, Work said, is addressing the erosion of U.S.
technological superiority through the Defense Innovation Initiative, a broad
effort to improve business operations and find innovative ways to sustain and
advance America’s military dominance for the 21st century.
“The DII’s leading focus is to identify, develop and field
breakthrough technologies and systems,” he said, “and to develop innovative
operational concepts to help us use our current capabilities in new and
creative ways.”
The ultimate aim is to help craft a third offset strategy,
he added.
Third Offset Strategy
After World War II the United States used nuclear weapons
development to offset Soviet numerical and geographic advantage in the central
front, and again changed the game in the 1970s and 1980s with networked
precision strike, stealth and surveillance for conventional forces, Work
explained.
Now, he said, “we will seek to identify new technologies and
concepts that will keep the operational advantage firmly in the hands of
America’s conventional forces, today and in the future.”
Central to the effort is a new Long-Range Research &
Development Planning Program, the deputy secretary said.
The LRRDP was created to identify weapons and systems in the
force that can be used in more innovative ways, promising technologies that can
be pulled forward and long-range science and technology investments that can be
made now for a future payoff.
Invitation to the Table
Technologies that might be associated with a new offset
strategy are being driven by the commercial sector, he said.
These include robotics; autonomous operating, guidance and
control systems; visualization; biotechnology; miniaturization; advanced
computing and big data; and additive manufacturing like 3-D printing.
“The third offset strategy is an open invitation for
everyone to come to the table … to creatively disrupt our defense ecosystem.
Because we'll either creatively disrupt ourselves or be disrupted by someone
else,” Work said.
Game-changing New Technologies
Funding dedicated to the effort includes the department’s
annual $12 billion in science and technology accounts, and the FY 2016 budget
request creates a reserve account to resource projects expected to emerge from
the DII, he said.
“The FY 2016 budget submission also invests in some
fantastic, potentially game-changing new technologies that we can more quickly
get into the force,” Work added, “as well as longer-range research efforts.”
Over the Future Years Defense Program, for example, the
department is investing $149 million in unmanned undersea vehicles, $77 million
in advanced sea mines, $473 million in high-speed strike weapons, $706 million
in rail gun technology, and $239 million in high-energy lasers.
And, he said, a new Aerospace Innovation Initiative will
bring people together to develop a wide range of advanced aeronautical
capabilities to maintain U.S. military air dominance.
Solving Operational Challenges
Work said the department’s innovation must be “broad-based
and rooted in realistic war gaming –- a big priority of mine -– more
experimentation, and new concept and leadership development to enable our
people to adapt to situations we can’t yet imagine.”
The third offset strategy is looking to solve specific
operational challenges, the deputy secretary said, using the electromagnetic
spectrum as an example.
“Electronic Warfare is often regarded as a combat enabler,
but more and more it is at the actual forefront of any conflict,” he said. “To
ensure we remain ahead in this increasingly important space, today I’m signing
out a memo that establishes an Electronic Warfare, or EW, Programs Council.”
Electronic Warfare Programs Council
The senior-level oversight council will have the lead in
establishing and coordinating DoD’s EW policy and will be co-chaired by
Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank
Kendall and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. James A.
Winnefeld Jr., he said.
Compared to the platforms that carry EW suites, the deputy
secretary added, it is a relatively small investment but has the potential for
a very high payoff.
“Our potential competitors seek to contest the EW space, an
area where we retain a decided lead,” Work said. “But that lead is tenuous, and
we believe that there has been insufficient focus on EW across the department.”
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