{"id":15867,"date":"2021-03-23T22:17:39","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T22:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2021\/03\/23\/defense-official-us-must-invest-more-in-innovation-to-compete-with-china\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:54:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:54:51","slug":"defense-official-us-must-invest-more-in-innovation-to-compete-with-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/artificial-intelligence\/2021\/03\/23\/defense-official-us-must-invest-more-in-innovation-to-compete-with-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense official: US must invest more in innovation to compete with China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The slowing of federal spending on research and development means the U.S. needs to capture innovation from the commercial market, a top Defense Department innovation official said Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. is attempting to outpace China in developing mature technologies that will define future fights, such as artificial intelligence, cyber capabilities and 5G networks, but federal investment is losing pace in the midst of the competition, said Michael Brown, director of the Defense Innovation Unit, the DoD arm tasked with connecting with nontraditional vendors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFederal R&amp;D is declining as a percentage of the economy, [and] it\u2019s flattening out in dollar terms,\u201d he said at the National Defense Industrial Association\u2019s National Security Artificial Intelligence Conference. \u201cMeanwhile, the commercial sector has moved ahead quite dramatically.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To keep pace, the U.S. needs to be \u201cbolstering investment in basic R&amp;D, that\u2019s both on the federal level &#8230; but also on the private sector side,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DIU\u2019s mission to attract nontraditional contractors is key to future military superiority, Brown said, pointing to statistics that show the top U.S. technology companies outspend the top five defense prime contractors on R&amp;D by about $64 billion a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo if we want access to the leading technology for our military, we\u2019ve got to be accessing the commercial world, and we\u2019ve got to learn to be a fast follower,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But there\u2019s still an important need for federal investment, Brown noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI think one of the advantages of federally funded R&amp;D is you get a longer-term time horizon and some willingness to take risk,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., chair of the House Armed Services Committee\u2019s new Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies, and Information Systems, called for increased spending in an array of research areas. He highlighted the payoffs of R&amp;D investment by pointing to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency\u2019s Pandemic Prevention Platform, a research program that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.c4isrnet.com\/industry\/2020\/04\/07\/how-past-investments-positioned-darpa-to-take-on-coronavirus\/\" target=_blank>helped accelerate the creation of a vaccine<\/a> for COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDefense-funded basic, early-stage and applied research helps us maintain our competitive edge on the battlefield, but also improves civilians lives,\u201d Langevin said at the conference. \u201cI urge my colleagues to support defense research as much as possible. It pays untold dividends going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the last three years, numerous think tank and congressional reports have called for increased federal R&amp;D spending. A 2020 report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence called for boosting R&amp;D investment from 0.7 percent of gross domestic product to 1.1 percent, the U.S historical average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brown warned that if the U.S. doesn\u2019t step up investment and take advantage of the private sector\u2019s latest breakthroughs, then China will overtake the U.S. technologically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe heart of that strategic competition is the tech race,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The director of the Defense Innovation Unit said the U.S. needs to harness R&#038;D investment by commercial 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