DSB to discuss military superiority study

The Defense Science Board will meet in February to discuss an ongoing "summer study" on the future of U.S. military superiority, according to a notice published in this morning's Federal Register.

The closed gathering will take place Feb. 19-20, during which study members "will meet in small groups to discuss classified ways in which the [Defense Department] can secure U.S. interests, manage escalation, and deter and counter adversary aggression, given a renewed great power competition."

At the end of each day, the members of the study "will meet in a plenary session" to discuss those same topics, according to the notice.

The study was commissioned last October by Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin, a new one-year project that reflects the continued angst of senior U.S. policymakers over how to deal with continuing advances by China's and Russia's armed forces.

"I ask the Defense Science Board to develop creative ways and means beyond traditional weapon systems to achieve National Defense Strategy objectives," Griffin wrote in a two-page memo commissioning the study, calling for "novel employment and harmonization of existing whole-of-government capabilities."

Craig Fields, DSB chairman, and Eric Evans, MIT Lincoln Laboratory director, are co-leading the new study.