Advanced Manufacturing: May 30, 2023

Advanced Manufacturing: A Possible Asymmetric Advantage to Ensure Security, Prosperity, and Values

Despite growing tension over threats to the current world order, the U.S. and like-minded partners maintain the power, tools, and competitive advantage to continue leading the pursuit of economic prosperity, preservation of peace, and defense of sovereignty for all nations. Advanced manufacturing is one such tool that, if developed and employed appropriately, offers the opportunity to further the concept of global prosperity and thwart revisionist ambitions. Analyzing advanced manufacturing is complicated because it is not an industry but a system of technological processes and products that are rapidly evolving. Reinforcing domestic manufacturing by progressing and integrating advanced technologies can help restore U.S. manufacturing capacity, maintain its leadership on the world stage, and usher in the next era of economic prosperity.

C4ISR: May 30, 2023

A View of the C4ISR Industry in the Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) Environment

The 2022 National Security Strategy (NSS) illuminates China’s economic rise and newfound global influence, underpinning the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ambitions of challenging the free and open international rules-based system. After decades of studying the United States, the CCP has undergone a sustained effort to bolster its military to disrupt the U.S. ability to project power. Simultaneously, the CCP is pursuing a concept called “informatized” war to replicate the U.S. approach to network warfare. Both nations rely on their defense industries to outpace their adversaries in this pivotal aspect of great power competition.

Cyber (formerly Information and Communications Technology): May 30, 2023

Safeguarding Cyberspace: The Imperative for Reform and Rebalance

The United States (US) will most likely continue to suffer unacceptable losses in strategic competition with autocracies in cyberspace until it shapes the cyberspace domain by improving cyberspace attention, leadership, and governance, fostering a more collaborative relationship with private industry to advance digital literacy and cybersecurity, and involving more offensive cyberspace operations through integrated deterrence via defend forward and persistent engagement strategies. Allies and partners should be engaged to ensure synchronous policies. The 2023 National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS), though appropriately advancing cybersecurity, will unlikely bend the positive slope of Intellectual Property (IP) theft, ransomware loss, malign cyber information operations (CIO), and ongoing cyberspace threats to US critical infrastructure by Russia and China. The US remains largely timid in cyberspace, especially in punishing malign actors, fearing escalation to kinetic conflict, and limits itself to cybersecurity. To date, US operations involving denial capabilities have not resulted in escalation to military conflict.

Energy: May 30, 2023

Maximizing the First 5% of GDP: An Optimistic Assessment of the United States Energy Sector and Policy Recommendations for the Future

Currently, there is considerable pessimism in the United States. Inflation, political polarization, debt brinksmanship, and protracted conflict dominate headlines. However, the mood is noticeably different in the energy sector. Energy is one of America’s greatest strengths, and after decades of languish and underinvestment (in certain parts of the industry), the sector may now be positioned to lead a new era of American leadership and growth. For the first time in decades, there is significant investment from the federal government, and the private sector and academia are eager to accept the challenges the administration has articulated.

Land Combat Systems (formerly Land Domain): May 30, 2023

Land Domain Platforms

Opportunities exists to boost innovation in the Land Domain Platforms (LDP) industry, which consists of markets for combat tracked maneuver/fires vehicles, wheeled sustainment vehicles, and medium/heavy vehicles. The end of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq brought about a downturn in the industry as occurred during the post-Cold War era. However, due to a combination of factors that include rapid technological change, the U.S. strategic competition with China, and the Russo-Ukrainian War, the domestic and international context are in alignment to enact policies that will have long-term, positive effects on the LDP industry. Congress and DoD must work together to set conditions that foster innovation across the LDP industry to improve the production of systems necessary to dominate land domain threats out to 2040 and beyond.

Networking (Formerly Newsmedia) May 30, 2023

Safeguarding Cyberspace: The Imperative for Reform & Rebalance

The United States (US) will most likely continue to suffer unacceptable losses in strategic competition with autocracies in cyberspace until it shapes the cyberspace domain by improving cyberspace attention, leadership, and governance, fostering a more collaborative relationship with private industry to advance digital literacy and cybersecurity, and involving more offensive cyberspace operations through integrated deterrence via defend forward and persistent engagement strategies. Allies and partners should be engaged to ensure synchronous policies. The 2023 National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS), though appropriately advancing cybersecurity, will unlikely bend the positive slope of Intellectual Property (IP) theft, ransomware loss, malign cyber information operations (CIO), and ongoing cyberspace threats to US critical infrastructure by Russia and China. The US remains largely timid in cyberspace, especially in punishing malign actors, fearing escalation to kinetic conflict, and limits itself to cybersecurity. To date, US operations involving denial capabilities have not resulted in escalation to military conflict. To shape the cyberspace domain to protect US and allied interests and protect US political and economic sovereignty, the United States must: 1. Shape the cyberspace domain and out-compete its adversaries, who view their relationships with the US as zero sum. 2. Afford the National Cyber Director (NCD) the authorities to synchronize and integrate US efforts to shape the cyberspace domain, including combating foreign information operations (IO). 3. Invest in emerging technology and public-private partnerships to out-compete adversaries in the cyberspace domain, including expanding cyber resilience, advancing private sector cooperation through a broader cyber incident reporting base, establishing a non-DoD cyberspace Reserve Force, establishing a Federal “Hack Us” program through the Office of the NCD (ONCD) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and enacting bipartisan legislation to protect Americans from malign, foreign cyber information activities. 4. Provide certain Federal government agencies with pre-approved authorities to engage cyberspace threats with proportional, defensive cyberspace operations to deter, disrupt, and destroy malicious cyberspace activity at its source.

Advanced Manufacturing May 30, 2022

Better, Faster, Stronger: Building National Competitiveness Through Advanced Manufacturing

2022 Antonelli Award Winner -- For decades, globalization has facilitated positive economic ties and development. It also made the US economy vulnerable to disruptions, material shortages, and international competition. As the Biden Administration observed, domestic manufacturing capacity is essential to the reliable availability of the goods, components, and equipment on which America's security, economic prosperity, and international influence rely. Fortunately, Industry 4.0 and Advanced Manufacturing offer opportunities to improve domestic manufacturing capacity. Industry 4.0 is a vision for combining the power of people, machinery, and technology for more efficient production of goods and services that fuel the global economy. Advanced Manufacturing combines data, technical inputs, and process changes necessary to realize that vision.

Biotechnology: May 30, 2022

Securing the Strategic Advantage in Biotechnology

The United States (U.S.) is the world leader in biotechnology (biotech) and innovation. Biotech availability has increased competition in the global market, threatening America's dominance in the industry. Biotechnology is simply defined as the "application of biology for useful purposes." It is not a defined list of products or industries but a set of "enabling technologies" that are industrialized and used to replace chemical compounds. The biotech industry is one of the world's fastest-growing, lucrative, and expansive global markets, introducing new scientific methods and bio-products at an unprecedented pace. Research-intensive biotech corporations have effectively redefined modern medicine, enhancing health care and developing techniques to increase human performance at the molecular level. Industry revenues exceed the global semiconductor market and contribute more than seven percent of America's gross domestic product (GDP). Advancements in bioengineering and manufacturing led to increased agricultural, pharmaceutical, and petrochemical productivity within the U.S. This report provides an overview of the biotech industry, its application to the defense industrial base, global competition, and its impact on U.S. policy and strategy to protect national security while maintaining the leading edge in the field.

Microelectronics: May 30, 2022

Electronics

The United States government must take action now to secure the supply chain for semiconductors, promote economic growth, and sustain the United States’ technological competitive advantage for the future. China’s state-led efforts to develop its domestic semiconductor industry are unprecedented in scope and scale and represent a direct threat to the United States’ economic and national security interests. The Department of Defense (DoD) requires secure access to semiconductors to support both cutting-edge and legacy capabilities.

Transportation (formerly Global Agility): May 30, 2022

Sustaining the U.S. Advantage in Global Transportation and Logistics

The U.S. transportation and logistics (T&L) ecosystem – composed of multiple sectors through a complex system of freight forwarding, storage, and distribution – is an essential pillar of the economy and contributes to U.S. economic prosperity and thus U.S. national security. This paper provides a brief overview of U.S. Deep Sea Shipping, Inland Waterways, Ports and Harbors, Railways, Trucking, Air Freight, and Warehousing sectors of the T&L ecosystem. It also considers how digital infrastructure bridges and connects each of these elements. By analyzing T&L’s role in supporting the U.S. and global economy, national security, and its contribution to mobilization efforts, the paper identifies significant issues and concerns within the T&L ecosystem. It concludes with policy recommendations to strengthen the U.S. position.