In the trenchesU.S. Navy: Investment in new ideas, scientific research needed to keep technological edge

At the Naval Future Force Science and Technology (S&T) EXPO in Washington D.C., Department of Navy leaders on 5 February called for investment in new ideas and scientific research to keep the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps technologically superior in increasingly uncertain times.

Tight budgets at home and technological advances by other nations must be met with a powerful response grounded in innovation from the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps S&T community, said Sean J. Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition.

“It takes good ideas at the front end to carry them all the way through the design, development and the fielding to provide those superior weapons for tomorrow,” said Stackley, one of three members on the Department of the Navy’s Research, Development, Technology and Engineering Corporate Board, which just approved a recent update to the Naval S&T Strategy.

Updated every two years, the strategy guides investments in scientific research, technology and talent to develop and deliver a range of technologies and capabilities for Sailors and Marines.

An ONR release reports that Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Mat Winter led a panel discussion at the EXPO featuring all three members of the corporate board: Stackley; Gen. John Paxton Jr., assistant commandant of the Marine Corps; and Adm. Michelle Howard, vice chief of naval operations (see video here).

The board members said the Naval S&T Strategy’s nine focus areas would guide technological breakthroughs for decades to come in assure access to the maritime battlespace; autonomy and unmanned systems; electromagnetic maneuver warfare; expeditionary and irregular warfare; information dominance-cyber; platform design and survivability; power and energy; power projection and integrated defense; and warfighter performance.

Howard emphasized the need for the Navy to continue exploring alternative sources of power and energy for ships, installations and revolutionary weapons like the Laser Weapon System and Electromagnetic Railgun that don’t require gunpowder. Cybersecurity also “is an area ripe for innovation,” Howard said.

Paxton cited past examples of technological advances as inspiration moving forward, from the Higgins Boat that made possible amphibious landings during the Second World War to more recent projects like QuickClot, a life-saving, blood-clotting technology sponsored by ONR.

Technological advancements made during the Second World War created a U.S. military that was unbeatable on land, at sea and in the air, the panel members agreed.