Military Review English Edition January-February 2015 | Page 12

unstable—and far more threatening to America
would enable the American military to avoid, as
and our citizens here at home than we have seen
Brown wrote, “matching an adversary tank-forsince World War II.
tank or soldier-for-soldier.”3 Because subsequent
Without our military supeleaders—at the Pentagon,
riority, the strength and credat the White House, and in
ibility of our alliances would
We are not waiting for Congress—sustained these
suffer. Both our friends and our
investments on a bipartisan
adversaries could doubt our com- change to come to us— basis, they helped America
mitment to enforcing long-esand hold our
we are leading change. buildfor decades. military
tablished international law and
edge
principles. Questions about
That is why, at the Reagan
our ability to win future wars could undermine
National Defense Forum in California this past
our ability to deter them, and our armed forces
November, I announced DOD’s new Defense
could one day go into battle confronting a range of
Innovation Initiative, which we expect to develop
advanced technologies that limit our freedom of
into a game-changing third offset strategy. This
maneuver—allowing a potential conflict to exact
new initiative is an ambitious department-wide
crippling costs and risk too many American lives.
effort to identify and invest in innovative ways
America does not believe in sending our troops
to sustain and advance America’s military domiinto a fair fight, but that is a credo we will not
nance for the twenty-first century. It will not only
be able to honor if we do not take the initiative
put new resources behind innovation but also
and address these mounting challenges now. The
will account for today’s fiscal realities, by focusDefense Department must continue to modernize
ing on investments that will sharpen our military
our military’s capabilities and sustain its operation- edge even as we contend with fewer resources.
al and technological edge. And we must do so by
Continued fiscal pressure will likely limit our milimaking new, long-term investments in innovation.
tary’s ability to respond to long-term challenges by
We have accomplished this before, even in times
increasing the size of our force or simply outspendof great tumult and change. In the 1950s, President
ing potential adversaries on current systems, so to
Dwight D. Eisenhower successfully offset the Soviet overcome challenges to our military superiority, we
Union’s conventional superiority through his “New
must change the way we innovate, operate, and do
Look” build-up of America’s nuclear deterrent.
business.
In the 1970s, after Soviet advances in nuclear
The Defense Innovation Initiative will draw on
weapons had diminished our strategic superiority,
the lessons of previous offset strategies and ensure
then-Secretary of Defense Harold Brown—working that America’s power-projection capabilities conclosely with Undersecretary, and future Defense
tinue to sustain our competitive advantage over the
Secretary, Bill Perry—shepherded a new offset
coming decades. To achieve this, we are pursuing
strategy, implementing the Long-Range Research
several lines of effort.
and Development Planning Program that helped
Our technology effort will establish a new
develop and field revolutionary new systems such
Long-Range Research and Development Planning
as extended-range precision-guided munitions,
Program that will help identify, develop, and field
stealth aircraft, and new intelligence, surveillance,
breakthroughs in the most cutting-edge technoloand reconnaissance platforms.
gies and systems—especially from the fields of roAll these systems drew upon technological
botics; autonomy; air, space, and undersea systems;
developments, such as the micro-processing revominiaturization; big data; and advanced manufaclution, that had unfolded over the course of a few
turing, including 3-D printing. This program will
decades. The critical innovation was to apply and
look toward the next decade and beyond. In the
combine these new systems and technologies with
near term, it will invite some of the brightest minds
new strategic operational concepts in ways that
from inside and outside government to start with a
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January-February 2015  MILITARY REVIEW