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There are five critical technologies needed to fight future wars, a top lawmaker on military and defense matters said recently.Those areas are missiles, missile defenses, drones, counter-drone systems, and secure communications, Rep.
Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat and the ranking member of the US House Armed Services Committee, said at a recent symposium in Washington, DC. He said these are the areas where the US needs to innovate and develop game-changing capabilities.Having the best weapons within those areas, he said, is key to winning future wars. The war in Ukraine is showing just how crucial these capabilities are.Smith pointed out that the development of countermeasures demands a constant cycle of modifying these systems. That's been seen especially in the mass use of electronic warfare to jam drones; in response, both sides of the war have developed ways to evade frequency jamming.Beyond drones and counter-drone tech, the importance of missiles and missile defense are increasingly hot topics among military leaders as US rivals and adversaries, from Russia and China to Iran and North Korea, invest in missiles.The US has seen interceptor stocks strained by Iranian bombardments and lower-end threats like the Houthis in Yemen, who terrorized ships in and around the Red Sea. In a great-power conflict, such as a potential war with China in the Indo-Pacific region, air defenses could be more critical to shield naval bases, air bases, and other installations, as well as ships.The US military is also developing and fielding certain offensive missile capabilities, like the Typhon Mid-Range Capability, which is a land-based launch option for Tomahawk cruise missiles, and hypersonic missile systems.Likewise, another key development area has been secure communications and assured navigation. Vulnerabilities in these spaces can be costly in a high-end fight.For the US military, special operations forces can be seen leading the way in innovative iteration. 'They're going to iterating on a day-in and day-out basis, and we need to learn from that and expand it,' Smith said at the National Defense Industrial Association US Special Operations Symposium.US special operators testing out uncrewed systems in different environments against different threats, for example, are at the front lines of figuring out what could be needed for a future fight.They are often among the first to get their hands on new technologies, and they work closely with the defense industry to develop new systems, leading to real-time adaptations and rapid evolutions.As special operations leadership said at the recent symposium, operators are going to need cheaper, more expendable weapons, like drones, in a potential future fight.While this doesn't mean that other systems — such as F-35 Joint Strike Fighters or Ford-class aircraft carriers — aren't needed, it does raise questions about where the US Department of Defense's priorities are.'We are spending a ton of money at DoD right now that isn't in those five things,' Smith said.The Pentagon is reshuffling the Defense Department's budget. It is still a bit murky, with submarines being among the few clearly articulated priorities, but it's moving roughly $50 billion from legacy programs to new priorities, which do appear to include missile defense and drone-related technologies.Big challenges for the department in fielding new capabilities can be contracting issues and slow acquisition processes.Military officials and industry partners at the NDIA special operations symposium spoke about the challenges facing the US military's acquisition process, including requirement and funding hurdles that have hindered the adoption of new weapons and capabilities.Some speakers highlighted the agile and flexible acquisition process used by US special operations forces as a model for how the Department of Defense can better implement new technologies, especially drones and other uncrewed systems. They said that having a process able to produce a variety of systems could be vital in a longer, protracted conflict.Others noted that a future, high-speed, highly digitized war could be even more demanding with the rise of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. Questions were raised, too, about whether decision-making will occur at such a pace that humans can't keep up. The technological space is evolving fast.
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