White House Seeks Next Generation of High-Tech Weapons

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced that the U.S. military will research and develop new weapons systems based on cutting-edge technologies in attempt to maintain its military dominance.

The Guardian reported:

Hagel announced the Defence Innovation Initiative and said it would include an effort to develop and field new systems using technologies such as robotics, autonomous systems, miniaturisation, data processing and three-dimensional printing.

Noting the defence department did not dominate the technologies it hoped to exploit, Hagel said the Pentagon would turn to businesses and universities for ideas and help.

He said the Pentagon expected the push to produce systems that would offset its rivals’ advantages, as atomic weapons did in the 1950s and precision strike and stealth have done in more recent years.

Hagel said in a memo to Pentagon chiefs announcing the initiative: “We are entering an era where American dominance in key warfighting domains is eroding and we must find new and creative ways to sustain, and in some areas expand, our advantages.” Russia and China have invested heavily in the modernization of their militaries, Hagel said.

Read more here.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly