DSB Meeting

The Defense Science Board plans to meet in closed session next month to discuss interim findings from its study of "Technology and Innovation Enablers for Superiority in 2030," according to a Federal Register notice published this morning.

From Aug. 20-24, "the Board will discuss interim finding and recommendations resulting from ongoing Task Force activities. The Board will also discuss plans for future consideration of scientific and technical aspects of specific strategies, tactics, and policies as they may affect the U.S. national defense posture and homeland security," the notice states.

In March, Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall commissioned the study, an effort that stems from the Obama administration's January revision of the Pentagon's strategic guidance. As InsideDefense.com reported at the time:

"Technologies that have the potential to significantly enhance or transform the nature of warfare in the air, sea, land, space and cyber regimes should be the focus on this study," Kendall wrote in a previously unreported March 15 memo to Paul Kaminski, the science board chairman and a former Pentagon acquisition executive.

The study is being led by Jim Tegnelia, a defense consultant and director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency from 2005 to 2009, and James Shields, president and chief executive officer of Draper Laboratory.

"The study should include surveying and assessing the potential for significant advances in technology outside DOD that could contribute to future military capabilities," Kendall wrote. Areas the task force should explore, according to Kendall's memo, include quantum computing, microelectronics, robotics, nanomaterial, genetics, alternative energy sources, advanced materials, "big data" and modeling and simulation.

"The 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance includes the tenet that technological superiority will continue to be a critical enabler for superior U.S. warfighting capability," Kendall wrote.

The Pentagon's research and development investments over the "next several years" will shape future capabilities, Kendall wrote, noting that the military will also likely rely on private-sector developments. Declining budgets, he wrote, will require the Defense Department to "be selective" with its research and development resources.