DARPA director Arati Prabhakar, in talking to reporters about DARPA’s desire to advance big data and other technologies quickly, mentioned the “third offset” and other DoD technology initiatives as demonstrating the department’s commitment to technological progress.
“All of those are signs of a Defense Department that is taking a fresh look at the world, realizing we need to take that fresh look again after this intense period of a very particular focus on two ground wars,” she said. “I think that’s a very healthy and encouraging sign.”
The third offset — the first two are nuclear weapons and precision-guided munitions — is an initiative unveiled in late 2014 by then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
“Our technology effort will establish a new Long-Range Research and Development Planning Program that will help identify, develop, and field breakthroughs in the most cutting-edge technologies and systems – especially from the fields of robotics, autonomous systems, miniaturization, big data, and advanced manufacturing, including 3D printing. This program will look toward the next decade and beyond,” Hagel said in November.
“In the near-term, it will invite some of the brightest minds from inside and outside government to start with a clean sheet of paper, and assess what technologies and systems DoD ought to develop over the next three to five years and beyond,” he added.
Resource: Read the speech
However, some question whether the effort is really enough to maintain American supremacy when many other nations turn to cheaper, mass-produced “good enough” weapons systems.
According to an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, for example: Turkey and Poland are buying self-propelled howitzers from Samsung. South Korea’s Daewoo is building naval supply ships for the United Kingdom, while a Korean firm, Korea Aerospace Industries, is building fighter jets for export to Iraq, Indonesia and the Philippines.
“At present, the third offset is merely a statement of intent,” reads the WSJ piece. “The question is whether it would be adequate even if fully executed.”
