Pentagon officials cite challenges in maintaining technological edge
By Phillip Swarts, Staff writer 4:13 p.m. EDT July 28, 2015
China is doing the best job of any nation at countering U.S. military capabilities and acquiring technology to keep the American military out of the western Pacific, a top Pentagon official said Tuesday.
“What they’re buying is a suite of capabilities that are designed to keep us out of their part of the world,” said Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisitions, technology and logistics.
“That suite of capabilities includes capabilities to control space and deny us our space-based communications and sensing capabilities … it includes the capabilities to attack us with cyber weapons in various ways, it includes long range cruise and ballistic missiles … designed to attack our high value assets, particularly carriers and air fields,” said Kendall, who added that he receives daily briefings on what equipment and weapons systems other nations are purchasing.
“If you take all of these things and put them together you have a very formidable layered defense system that makes it very hard for us to project power forward,” he said.
Speaking at the Directed Energy Summit hosted by defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and think-tank the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, Kendall said the Asian nation is starting to develop air-to-air missile and electronic systems that are on par with the U.S.
“I’m not suggesting that war with China’s likely,” he said. “But I am suggesting that … it is very likely for us to have friction points out there.”
Plus, he added, it is possible that China could sell its technology to groups or nations that the U.S. is more likely to face in combat.
The U.S. must not get complacent in its technological innovation, he warned.
“We are so used, however, to the assumption of U.S. technological superiority that often when I bring this up with people they dismiss it,” he said. “They don’t think of China as a formidable opponent.”
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the conference that directed energy is one technology that could help the U.S. maintain an edge.
Directed energy is a wide term that encompasses a host of technologies that could vastly expand U.S. warfighter capabilities, from lasers shooting down incoming missiles, to high-energy microwave beams shutting down electronics.
Mabus applauded the testing being done by the Navy into directed energy systems, such as a ship-based laser and an electromagnetic rail-gun.
The rail-gun can shoot a 23-pound projectile at speeds of Mach 7, and hit a target 100 miles away, Mabus said.
“As a point of comparison, the Navy’s current 5-inch guns have a range of about 13 miles, the rounds weigh 100 pounds, and their explosive nature makes them more precarious to store and handle,” he said.
Ship-based testing is planned for next year aboard the USNS Trenton, Mabus said. But the Navy is already using a directed energy system aboard the USS Ponce, which deployed to the Persian Gulf.
“It can defeat small boats and UAVs, it only takes one sailor to operate it, and it’s got a second use as a telescope,” he said.
Pentagon videos posted online show the laser system being able to hit fast-moving targets and detonate ordinance before they reach a ship.
Mabus said he plans to release a roadmap in the fall that will chart the Navy and Marine Corps' directed energy course moving forward. He noted naval capabilities are greatly aiding the research into the new systems.
“Our ships are big enough to host large, heavy weapons systems, our gas turbines and nuclear reactors can provide the magnitude of power necessary to make these weapons effective,” he said. And when it comes to cooling, “We have all the saltwater in the world.”
The secretary also voiced his concerns about the U.S. falling behind other nations in research and deployment of new technologies.
“I’m absolutely positive we’re not the only ones doing this,” he said. “I think we’re always in a race to stay ahead of threats.”
Mabus, however, said he’s optimistic any challenges can be met.
“There have been more than two centuries of collaboration and experimentation among people in and out of uniform,” he said. “In so many cases, we have taken seemingly impossible ideas and made them real, particularly when it comes to how we cultivate and use energy."
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/tech/2015/07/28/pentagon-officials-cite-challenges-maintaining-technological-edge/30792603/
