Building the S&E Workforce for 2040: Challenges Facing the Department of Defense; Research rept

摘要

As emerging technologies develop and mature, it is vital that the Department of Defense (DoD) be able to recognize relevant breakthroughs as they emerge and provide the advocacy needed to exploit them quickly. Meeting this responsibility will become increasingly difficult because of the great complexity of the topics involved and the emergence of scientific and technological disciplines that are not extant in the current DoD science and technology (S&T) enterprise, public or private. Historically, the Nation has maintained within the Federal Government, and in quasi-government organizations, a highly competent cadre of scientists and engineers who would act as trusted advisors, and were of sufficient numbers and stature to adjudicate among the often conflicting advice and proposals from the larger community on emerging S&T. Most of the internal government scientific and technical competence of DoD has resided in the military laboratories and the military research and development (R&D) centers. This model worked well for many years and helped the United States to maintain an edge over adversaries by fielding technologically superior warfighting systems. Many of today's most important military technologies can be traced back to the government and quasi-government laboratories. However, the future viability of the model is in doubt. An indication of this is the increasing number of new weapon systems that are experiencing serious technical difficulties, many of which should have been anticipated before the programs were approved. A scientific and technical accountability gap has emerged. The government is not maintaining adequate technical competence and/or is not making proper use of the competence that it has maintained. This paper examines some of the trends that have led to this situation, focusing on the government component of the model. To estimate future S&T needs, the paper examines trends beginning in the late 1920s and continuing through the present time.