Developing Battlefield Technologies in the 1990s: Institute for National Strategic Studies McNair Paper 21

Two momentous events have reshaped the way the Department of Defense (DOD) conducts its business. The first, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, perhaps the most significant event of the past decade, changed the mix of technologies DOD needs to execute its mission. Future conflicts are now much more likely to be conventional than nuclear, regional than global, and tactical than strategic. Hence, new technologies must be developed and blended with existing technologies to cope with a greater variety of battlefield conditions. A second momentous event, Desert Storm, realerted the world to the importance of technology. Of great importance to the coalition forces, for example, was that technology saved lives. Although the outcome of Desert Storm vindicated past military predilection and investment in technology within the US forces, it also rekindled concern for preserving a technological edge and accelerated adoption of a new acquisition approach to that end. Just as demand for new battlefield technologies has again strengthened, DOD faces chronic budget cutbacks. Ad Admiral David E. Geremiah, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff observed, “Our position is similar to that of the Royal Navy roughly 100 years ago, when the British introduced a new class of large, fast, heavily armed warships. Overnight the new Dreadnought class, essentially the first modern battleships, mad every other type of surface combatant obsolete.”