An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir June 2016 www.dfmagazine.ie 20 | However, over the last ten years the proliferation of air defence systems, the ending of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the growing prospect of a long-term national debt, has forced the Pentagon to rethink its programmes once more. The unveiling of the 'New Innovation Strategy' (more the commonly dubbed the 'Second Offset') by Under-Secretary Work seeks to gain a continuing advantage over would-be rivals. Its main interests, according to a report by the EUISS (European Union Institute for Security Studies), are robotics, autonomous systems, miniaturi- sation, big data, and additive manufacturing. According to the report: 'A common thread between these segments is that the cutting edge technologies are dual-use, meaning they have both military and commercial applications, or are currently led by the commercial sector.' In short, the new offset is about chasing the commercial sector for military solutions and the dollars for such innovation have moved in that direction. It's also about creating, consistently evolving abilities, that are quickly adopted by the military and scaled. As Under-Secretary Work explained at the announcement of the Second Offset: "We'll be looking for promising technologies that we can do in what we call the FYDP, the Future Years Defence Program, generally about five years out. We'll identify long-range advances that we can pull up and hopefully field in the '20s, and then we'll plant the seeds for R&D, which will give us an advan- tage for the '30s." T he US military is losing its edge. technologies once lauded as 'game changers' on the battle- field are becoming outdated. But the Pentagon has a plan to ensure military and technological dominance for the next half century and beyond. What does this mean for military spending, innovation, and the future of warfare? US military thought since WWII has been defined by two major rethinks. First was Eisenhower's 'New Look' policy, which created a large arsenal of nuclear weapons and delivery systems to oppose Soviet ground forces. Guided by the principle of 'massive retaliation' this policy placed Strategic Air Command (SAC) as one of the most powerful organisations in the country. With the closure of the 'missile gap' this superiority was eroded. With the Soviets matching bomber for bomber and missile for missile, as well as experiences in Vietnam, the old policy was showing its limits, both militarily and financially. This led to the second major rethink, the 'Offset Strategy' as proposed by Secretary Harold Brown in the 1970s. This changed the focus to ensuring a qualitative edge in future conflicts by pursuing a range of new platforms and systems. The development of precision-guided munitions, and microelec- tronic technology, like fly-by-wire systems, satellites and stealth, paved the way for an ability to attack with surprise: the so called 'Reconnaissance Strike Capability', which has created a revolution in military affairs (RMA). The 'Shock and Awe' military doctrine witnessed early in the Gulf Wars of 1991 and 2003 demonstrated this in its full effect. By ROBERT TARRANT Standard Missile-3, shown here in this illustration, is the world's only ballistic missile killer deployable on land or at sea. © Raytheon

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