The Disruptive Military Technologies That the Pentagon Is Spending Nearly $150 Billion On

President Joe Biden’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2024 is $886.3 billion, with nearly $150 billion allocated for research and development into emerging technologies that leverage AI, hypersonic munitions, and electromagnetic swarms.

The Pentagon and its subsidiary military technology labs, working with universities and high-tech contractors (including small businesses), have already produced innovative weapons systems, including newly deployed directed-energy weapons and hypersonic/ballistic sensors. Future products and systems looking for funding include a “Rocket Cargo” that moves 100 tons of cargo anywhere within an hour, a counter-swarm electromagnetic weapon powered by a wall plug, and a rotating detonation engine without moving parts.

Utilitarian products like Portable Fluid Analyzers, a ship-to-ship Morse code to text message system, and an assembly line of unmanned aircraft (ranging from micro-drones to Unmanned Long-endurance Tactical Reconnaissance Aircraft) are also being tested. These products will have to overcome “The Valley of Death,” that point in the military product development timeline when a cutting-edge weapon that could deliver a competitive advantage cannot advance out of its prototype phase in time for use in the field.

The “Valley of Death”

Integrating still-maturing technologies into existing platforms without disrupting multi-year procurement and acquisition systems is one of the major challenges facing the military according to officials at the National Defense Industrial Association’s April 13 webinar. The proposed budget of $145 billion for Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDTE) is up 12% from last year’s budget, with the Air Force receiving one-third of the budget allocation.

Officials for the Army, Navy, and Airforce, emphasized cooperative ventures with industry and plans for workforce development, particularly in small businesses. The budget request also includes $842 billion for the Pentagon, emphasizing China as a major threat, with $17.8 billion earmarked for Science and Technology components of the RDTE budget.

In June 2022, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks referred to “transition discord” as one of the biggest problems facing the DOD, where scaling up to full-scale production and fielding new weapons systems becomes the “Valley of Death”. Rear Adm. Lorin Selby, Chief of Naval research, described three “Valleys of Death”, where the first occurs in the prototyping stage. The second happens while transitioning the product from the prototype stage to production, affecting factors like cost and manufacturing capabilities. The final “Valley” is at the production stage, where rapid scaling becomes a challenge.