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.

Aircraft (formerly Air Domain): May 30, 2022

Aerial Mass for Strategic Competition: The Quality-Quantity Paradox

As the United States (US) returns to strategic competition and contemplates large scale conventional conflict once again, several factors make a World War II-era surge of military aircraft production highly unlikely. The need for aerial mass, and the associated limitations to mass production in the military aviation industry, together constitute the problem addressed by this report, whose research question is: given constraints in tools, technology, training, and policy within the military aviation industry, what steps can the US government take to ensure sufficient mass for strategic competition?

Artificial Intelligence (formerly Emerging Technologies): May 30, 2022

In AI We Trust, All Others We Model

The NSCAI explained in its 2021final report that AI is a unique human invention that is not a single event or technology. Rather, AI is like what Thomas Edison said of electricity, “It is a field of fields… it holds the secrets which will reorganize the life of the world.” Today, we experience AI daily. We interact directly with digital assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Watson or the IRS has our tax returns analyzed by AI to detect fraud. However, the examples today are minor advances (the tip of an iceberg) in comparison to the transformation that is coming.

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.

C4ISR: May 30, 2022

A Review of the C4ISR Industry Efforts to Implement the Concept for Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2)

After the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS) release, the Joint Staff endeavored to modernize and enhance the U.S. global integrated defense posture and joint capabilities and concepts. The NDS recognized the emerging Great Power Competition (GPC) and refocused the Department of Defense’s (DoD) priorities. The Combatant Commands (CCMD), who report directly to the Secretary of Defense (SecDef), maintain theater-specific defense partnerships and force postures to respond to threats in their areas of responsibility. However, the strategic environment described in the NDS demanded transregional approaches and joint, All-Domain capabilities. Over the last four years, the resultant modernization efforts within the Services and the Joint Staff’s concept development for warfighting concepts to support the CCMDs intersected. The Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) concept emerged as the framework to connect the people, systems, and warfighting concepts.

Cyber (formerly Information and Communications Technology): May 30, 2022

Networked Power: Addressing the Role of Networking and Communication Technologies in 21st-century Influence Operations

Adversaries have long used propaganda, disinformation, and deception to gain an advantage over opponents, shape how they think, control the flow of information, and attempt to win wars without fighting. The evolution of networking and communication technology (NCT) over time has expanded the reach and potential effectiveness of these efforts. Social media has emerged as such a powerful tool that some describe it as a weapon of modern warfare. It doesn’t stop there—online messaging, gaming, financial technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and a slew of other NCT have revolutionized the adversary’s tool kits for propaganda and deception.

Energy: May 30, 2022

Energy Industry Study Report

This paper documents a top-level exploration of the global energy industry and its ramifications for the United States’ enduring interests and national security. Prior scholars at National Defense University conducted similar research and documented their results within publicly available reports. Current students examined reports from 2009 and 2018 to find gaps in the research and analyze trends within the energy industry. Previous reports conducted a point-in-time analysis of the energy industry and are therefore ripe for an update.

Environment: May 30, 2022

Environment and Climate Industry Study

The overarching purpose of the Environment & Climate Industry Study is to assess U.S. and international competitiveness in the environmental and climate sector(s) of industry within the context of national security, broadly defined. The environmental industry includes firms providing a wide array of goods and services, all with an environmental aim — from waste management and environmental protection to water utilities and regulatory compliance. The related climate change industry includes those activities aimed at minimizing the negative impacts of human activity on the climate, like renewable energy, green buildings, and adaptation and mitigation efforts designed to help society cope with climate-related events without sacrificing quality of life. Firms operating in this “industry of industries” face numerous challenges, not the least of which is ideological. Widely identified as a national security threat, climate change is altering the way many on the planet live and contributing to geopolitical flashpoints that affect human, national, and global security. The U.S. government must recognize (a) the dependency of its economic strength on global environmental security, and (b) its leadership role in shaping environmental, climate, and economic policies, both domestically and internationally. By leveraging the strength of U.S. environmental firms that are already shaping market and consumer behavior, government can accelerate mitigation and adaptation efforts, embrace innovation that increases efficiency, sustainability, and resilience, and produce stronger domestic and global economies, with attendant benefits to human, environmental, national, and global security.

Financial Services: May 30, 2022

Optimizing the Financing of Innovation to Accelerate National Security Capabilities

The U.S. finance industry is robust and well-resourced, offering a range of commercial and consumer banking, lending, and investment services to individuals and institutions across the country and the globe. Innovation within the finance industry is usually financed by risk capital firms seeking innovation with the potential for commercial success and high returns on investment. Financing innovation is considered a high-risk endeavor due to high startup failure rates, unproven technology, and the challenges of scaling to market production. Finding and applying innovation funding for potential defense market products is even more difficult, given the single buyer in the form of the DoD, the consolidated nature of the private defense industry, and the draw of higher, faster returns in the commercial sector. These factors limit private investment in national security-oriented start-ups. They also resulted in a divergence between the high technology capabilities in the commercial marketplace and the outmoded technology often found within the DoD and the broader U.S. Government (USG). To correct this imbalance, the DoD must take the following actions: increase and expand the investment tools within the innovation ecosystem, scale innovation ecosystem products to operations, and support America’s continued innovation advantage to be more relevant, complementary, and agile.

Maritime (formerly Sea Domain): May 30, 2022

Righting the Ship: Positioning the U.S. Maritime Industrial Base to Mobilize in the 21st Century Strategic Competition

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, China’s maritime interests (the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), Chinese Coast Guard, and Maritime Militia) have rapidly accelerated on a path to challenge United States’ naval supremacy. As a result, the United States is moving to modernize its Naval Service, defined collectively as the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the U.S. Coast Guard, into an integrated all-domain force that excels in Distributed Maritime Operations to maintain the advantage at sea and enforce foreign policy objectives.