White House releases National Security S&T Strategy

The National Security Science & Technology Strategy (NSSTS) was released this week. It is supposed to support and enable the previous year’s National Security Strategy (NSS). It describes how the US will leverage its science and technology (S&T) enterprise to support and enable the objectives of the NSS. The strategy is based on the following four pillars.

Pillar 1: Focusing Techno-Strategic Competition

The US will focus S&T sectors towards maintaining battlefield advantage, countering strategic threats to the homeland, and shaping the competition toward areas of US strength.

The NSS identifies three priority areas when it comes to maintaining battlefield advantage and power projection. Those are:

-         Undersea (clear technological superiority over its adversaries);

-         Space (clear technological superiority as well);

-         AI and autonomy (to retain the competitive advantage in this rapidly evolving area).

It’s worth noting that in the AI and autonomy area, the US does not possess clear technological superiority, as it is aware of the competitiveness of the environment and developments achieved by adversaries (especially China). Other areas critical to US battlefield advantage include air, long-range strike capability, and command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C5ISR).

The second element describes leveraging technology to counter strategic threats. The US will prioritise the application of S&T in order to deny strategic advantage to its adversaries. Those include:

-         Securing US’ borders at land, air, and maritime approaches;

-         Ensuring survivable and credible nuclear deterrent forces;

-         Deploying and maintaining the Golden Dome for America initiative;

-         Protecting critical data, networks, assets, and infrastructure against cyberattacks and espionage;

-         Countering biological weapon threats.

“Relevant agencies should include, within their S&T activities, a dedicated focus on supporting these elements of homeland defence,” reads the document.

The last element of the first pillar is shaping the technology competition toward areas of US strength. The US will not mirror an adversary’s offensive systems if it already possesses a viable (and cheaper) defensive counter. “Solutions must be both affordable and effective.” Sometimes the answer will be to produce a cheap counter en masse. Other times the answer will be leveraging exquisite technology in platforms deployed in small numbers in order to defeat mass-produced systems developed by the adversary. The main point here for Washington is to avoid entering a needless arms race.

The Strategy also accepts the fact that some adversaries will have a technological advantage over the US. “We must avoid situations where competing for advantage favours adversaries and works against the objectives of US strategy by expending resources without improving US security.” Some areas will require cooperative mutual restraint that would deny a competitor’s strategic advantage and preserve US resources at the same time. Diplomacy will be important.

Pillar 2: Building Technological Resilience

The US will build technological resilience in several ways. One of them will be anticipating national security challenges and emerging opportunities. The US will conduct assessments to understand the national security implications of emerging technologies, adapt to meet evolving challenges, and take advantage of new opportunities. These assessments will inform where Washington can compete for advantage, where it can deny advantage to adversaries, and where mutual restraint may be the best choice.

The other point is leading in transformative emerging technology areas. Those technologies include, but are not limited to: AI and autonomy, biotechnology, and quantum information technologies. All of them present new opportunities and potential threats.

Enabling the national resilience architecture is another element of the second pillar. It can be described as modernising critical infrastructure and updating the way the US will respond to adversary attacks and other unanticipated events.

The last element of the pillar focuses on keeping foreign adversaries out of critical technology systems and supply chains. The US will prevent foreign adversaries from exploiting critical technology systems and supply chains. Domestic product development and homeshoring will be prioritised. If that’s not possible, working with suppliers only from trusted partners remains an option.

Pillar 3: Accelerate the Pace of Innovation

In order to accelerate the pace of innovation, relevant agencies will have to incentivise and enable innovators in all sectors to contribute to national security needs. “This should include developing rapid Research and Development (R&D) funding mechanisms for CET areas, identifying opportunities to issue short-turnaround innovation challenge competitions without unnecessarily constraining the solution space, and rewarding private and academic sector participants who deliver solutions that meet priority mission needs.” Unnecessary administrative and regulatory burdens are to be removed. The development and acquisition cycles in the defence and broader national security sectors are to be shortened.

Pillar 4: Protect National Security S&T

The last pillar of the strategy focuses on protecting the domestic S&T ecosystem from foreign theft, diversion, and exploitation that could impair US economic and military strength and competitiveness. Research security itself needs to be strengthened, as some foreign governments exploit US international research environments that remain open to circumvent the costs of research. This increases the economic and military competitiveness of potential adversaries at the expense of the United States.

What’s interesting is that it’s the only pillar that mentions China directly. Beijing is presented as a threat, and the pillar itself proposes to protect critical S&T through additional security measures. Those include increased scrutiny of foreign investments, companies, and personnel involved in R&D.

Check out the whole NSSTS for yourself here.