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181 CHAPTER 11 Science for National Defense What Is the Role of Defense Research in U.S. Science Policy? Concerns about national defense were the primary driving force behind American investment in research after World War II and throughout the Cold War. Noted President Harry Truman in a special message delivered to Congress in September 1945 just after the Japanese surrender in World War II: “No government adequately meets its responsibilities unless it generously and intelligently supports and encourages the work of science in university, industry, and in its own laboratories.”1 In a second message delivered to Congress just over two months later, Truman urged Congress to create a new Department of National Defense. In so doing he called for the systematic allocation of scientific resources, noting, “No aspect of military preparedness is more important than scientific research.”2 During the Cold War, investments made by the Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and each of the military service branches in federal research laboratories and at universities resulted in important technologies for military and civilian use. In addition to supporting the fundamental knowledge underpinning the military technologies, these investments also played a critical role in supporting some of the nation’s top scientific talent, including more than sixty-five Nobel Prize–winning researchers.3 Defense research continues to be an important element of our national security today and will be tomorrow. New challenges now face the military, such as cyberterrorism, information warfare, biological and chemical weapons, improvised explosive devices, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; all will require the development of new and more sophisticated technologies to protect the military and the nation from these threats. The knowledge required to generate these technologies is critically dependent upon sustained investments in longterm , high-risk, defense-oriented research. One of the challenges for policymakers with regard to defense research has, and will continue to be, balancing short-term military requirements with the longer-term need to invest in the fundamental knowledge and human talent base required to ensure that the armed forces will have access to cutting-edge technologies in the future. This is a delicate balance, one that must be continually monitored. Wrote Caspar Weinberger when he was secretary of defense in the Reagan administration: We face the danger of losing our edge because we have not adequately replenished the reservoir of scientific concepts and knowledge to nourish future technologies . . . we must systematically replenish the scientific reservoir, using the unique and diverse strength of the United States scientific community. . . . Given the relatively long lead time between fundamental discovery and applying such knowledge to defense systems, the true measure of our success . . . may not be apparent for several decades. When the “moment of truth” arrives, we cannot afford to be found wanting.4 Indeed, government support for basic and applied defense research programs has often been referred to as the “seed corn” for the nation’s future military capabilities.5 In what follows we will examine the nature of defense research in more detail, looking at what defense research is and why it is important, its historical relationship to civilian R&D, the advisory structures that support it, and 182 | BEYOND SPUTNIK finally, some of the key policy issues that surround it, including how much funding it should receive compared to other military and defense needs. Defense Research Defined Defense (or military) research is research dedicated to ensuring the armed services’ technical superiority and the nation’s security. The goal of defense research is to promote “advances in fields that are likely to contribute to national defense, and in doing so, to foster a competitive technology base for the U.S. military.”6 The military engages in a broad spectrum of activities relating to research , development, testing, and evaluation (referred to in defense circles as RDT&E) of weapons and other military -related technologies. In order to understand what is meant by defense research , it is important to understand how the DOD itself categorizes its activities in these areas. Research support within the DOD is provided through the Research, Development , Testing, and Evaluation (RDT&E) section of the agency’s budget, which is broken into seven categories, labeled 6.1 through 6.7. The 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3 accounts, along with defense medical research, are commonly referred to as defense S&T. These are the defense funding accounts that are most relevant for students of science policy. Basic and applied defense research fall into categories 6.1 and 6.2 respectively...

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