Feb. 1, 2006

DTP-026: Critical Technology Events in the Development of the Apache Helicopter: Project Hindsight Revisited

This study is the second in a series that examines some of the key factors that have led to meaningful technology generation and ultimate incorporation into the U.S. Army weapons systems we see in the field today. The purpose of this report is to examine the development of select Army systems, and in particular those signal technology events that propelled these systems to success, and to shed light on the factors that lead defense science and technology research to fruition.

Feb. 1, 2006

DTP-027: Implementing DOD’s International Science and Technology Strategy

As can be seen from the recently released “International Science and Technology Strategy for the United States Department of Defense,” the network for worldwide sharing of defense S&T information is vast, and the new strategy provides an excellent framework to maximize this potential. This paper provides some specific thoughts on implementation and how certain steps might benefit all involved.

Jan. 1, 2006

Report to the Congress: Information Technology Program

In the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002, the Report of the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, stated that the “Department of Defense can no longer depend on a dedicated defense industrial base, but will need to find ways to link advanced commercial technologies to improved military capabilities.” Congress asked CTNSP to implement a program “to find practical ways in which the defense information technology (IT) community can gain a mutual understanding of defense needs and industry capabilities and identify opportunities to integrate technology innovation in the U.S. military strategy.”

Jan. 1, 2006

DTP-023: The New Reality of International Telecommunications Strategy

This paper considers the relative decline of American Telecommunications leadership from geopolitical and technical perspectives. This decline is important to recognize and understand because it is masked by the achievements of the American economy and U.S. military successes since the end of the Cold War.

Dec. 1, 2005

DTP-022: Critical Technology Events in the Development of the Abrams Tank: Project Hindsight Revisited

This paper consists of a series of studies focusing on Army weapons systems, beginning with the mainstay of the Army’s armor force, the Abrams tank. Analysis of other Army systems, such as the Apache helicopter and the Javelin and Stinger missiles will follow. The results of all studies are complied in a wrap-up report that will focus on the implications of the findings for today’s S&T environment.

Nov. 1, 2005

DTP-021: The Bug Stops Here: Force Protection and Emerging Infectious Diseases

The purpose of this paper is to review important lessons that have been learned in the past, and to revisit the older but proven principles of force protection that are in danger of being forgotten in today’s technology-focused military environment. It provides a series of case studies that analyze health threats to each regional combatant command and presents both tactical and strategic recommendations that will better prepare the entire DoD for future outbreaks.

Oct. 1, 2005

Sweden’s Use of Commercial Information Technology for Military Applications

Sweden, a nation of only 9 million people with a political climate that has fostered a posture of nonalignment for over half a century, has nevertheless maintained highly credible, modern, and high-technology military forces. Sweden has expanded the mission of forces originally designed for the Cold War to include international peacekeeping. The focus of this study is the Swedish formula for achieving the high-technology military capabilities that successfully compensate for a small standing force. What policies and processes enabled the Swedish military to take advantage of leading-edge producers of commercial information technology (CIT)? What lessons does the Swedish model hold for the U.S. Department of Defense?

Oct. 1, 2005

Russia and NATO: Increased Interaction in Defense Research and Technology

As a member of both the Partnership for Peace and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)–Russia Council (NRC), Russia enjoys remarkable status in an alliance formed principally to counter Soviet aggression. Active participation in one additional element of NATO—the Research and Technology Organization (RTO)—would offer unique opportunities to enhance relationships and mutual security. The RTO is the largest organization of its type in the world, has an extremely active program of work, and is eager to work with Russia.

Sept. 15, 2005

DTP-020: Making IT Happen: Transforming Military Information Technology, edited by Joseph N. Mait

This report is a primer for commercial providers to gain some understanding of the military’s thinking about military information technology and some of the programs it foresees for the future. The intent is to introduce those not presently involved in the development of military information technology to some of the things and programs being developed by the DoD for deployment in the next five to ten years.

Sept. 5, 2005

DTP-019: Alternative Fleet Architecture Design

This report calls into question the viability of the longstanding logic of naval force building. It provides a description of the opportunities that rapid advances in technology and organizational effectiveness offer the U.S. Navy as it looks to the demanding future. Most important, it provides an alternative fleet architecture design that incorporates the three broad elements of the DoD’s transformation strategy.

Sept. 1, 2005

DTP-018: The NATO Response Force: Facilitating Coalition Warfare Through Technology Transfer and Information Sharing

This study is an examination of the issues associated with transferring U.S. technology and information needed for standing up such an advanced force for early entry into high-intensity conflicts. It also makes a number of additional observations about the nature of 21st century coalition warfighting, the centrality of network-centric warfare to coalition operations, and the importance and complexity of improving force interoperability in an increasingly network-centric environment.

Aug. 15, 2005

DTP-017: The Science and Technology Innovation Conundrum

This study is motivated by the observation that the state of health of the United States S&T enterprise seems to be simultaneously characterized by opposite assessments. The purpose of this study is to shed light on how this conundrum has come about, and from this perspective to evaluate potential impacts of the underlying drivers of the conundrum on the technological positioning and ultimate national security of the U.S.

Aug. 1, 2005

DTP-016: Harnessing the Interagency for Complex Operations

This paper attempts to catalogue and describe the known models for interagency cooperation for stabilization and reconstruction (S&R) operations. The models in existence and under discussion can be grouped in terms of their focus on different aspects of the interagency process, as well as on different aspects of S&R.

July 15, 2005

DTP-015: Learning from Darfur: Building a Net-Capable African Force to Stop Mass Killing

The purpose of this report is to explore one particularly promising model of combat force to intervene in Africa to stop mass killings and other atrocities. Its conclusion is that networking concepts and technologies that were effective in Afghanistan and Iraq can be used by Africans with intensive external help to field a capability for forcible humanitarian intervention.

July 1, 2005

Can al Qaeda Be Deterred from Using Nuclear Weapons?

This occasional paper pursues four different but complementary approaches to dissect the issue of whether acquisition of NBC/R weapons will mean employment for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda.

July 1, 2005

The Changing Landscape of Defense Innovation

In a rapidly evolving business environment, many successful companies have transformed themselves by reexamining their core missions and competencies and exploiting innovation in nontraditional ways. General Electric still manufactures products but now identifies itself as a services company. Wal-Mart has become the premier retailer by capitalizing on its logistics and support systems. These two giants and other companies have realized that they can become more profitable by exploiting new regions of the business landscape.

June 1, 2005

DTP-014: Bayes, Bugs, and Bioterrorists: Lessons Learned from the Anthrax Attacks

This paper applies the framework to managing the risks of anthrax to provide an illustrative example which demonstrates that by organizing information at this level, decision makers can quickly understand the critical connections between different options. It suggests the need for the creation of a comprehensive national management plan.

May 1, 2005

Iraq and After: Taking the Right Lessons for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction

This paper primarily focuses on Iraq; however, it also seeks to draw lessons from experiences in libya and Iran to understand better how proliferators think about WMD; the challenges in assessing the status and sophistication of developing world WMD programs; the contours of the emerging international proliferation landscape; and the efficacy of various policy instruments available to the United States for dealing with these so-called ultimate weapons.

May 1, 2005

A New Military Framework for NATO

Although Americans and Europeans do not always agree on political strategies in the Middle East, they have a compelling reason to reach an accord on the need to strengthen North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military forces for future operations in that region and elsewhere. If adequate military capabilities are lacking, the Alliance will not be able to act even when its political leaders agree on the need to do so. But if it creates such capabilities, it will be able to act either ad hoc or across the board if a common political strategy eventually were to emerge.

May 1, 2005

DTP-013: A Primer on the Detection of Nuclear and Radiological Weapons

This study upon which this report is based was undertaken because of the large and growing importance of detection technologies for nuclear or radiological weapons of mass destruction (NRWMD). While this report will focus on detection of NRWMD, the NRWMD problem does not have a purely technical solution and th reasons for this will be become clear in this report.

March 1, 2005

DTP-012: Strengthening the Army R&D Program

These two papers consider models for managing the Army laboratories, including the mode of operations and the means by which the Army can be assured that its technical enterprise is state of the art. Taken together these papers present opportunities to move the Army S&T program ahead without disrupting the current operations of the laboratories.

Feb. 1, 2005

DTP-010: Transforming the Reserve Component: Four Essays

This volume contains four essays on various aspects of the Reserve Component published at a time when Reserves are serving overseas at historically high rates and when new missions like homeland security demand their attention. In these essays, the authors explore ways in which the Reserve Component might be transformed to face these challenges.

Feb. 1, 2005

DTP-011: Pre-Conflict Management Tools: Winning the Peace

This paper addresses the Pre-Conflict Management Tools (PCMT) Program which was developed to transform how intelligence, policy, and operational decisionmakers interact when confronting highly complex strategic problems. The first half of this paper provides readers a context for why the PCMT program is imortant for incoportating social science models into the RCC and interagency planning processes. The second half provides an overview of the structure, methods, and technologies of PCMT.

Jan. 1, 2005

DTP-008: Battle-Wise: Gaining Advantage in Networked Warfare

This paper summarizes a forthcoming National Defense University book suggesting why and how the U.S. and allied forces should improve the cognitive faculties of military decisionmakers to attain new operational and strategic advantages or to avoid the loss of advantages they now enjoy.

Jan. 1, 2005

DTP-009: Container Security: A Proposal for a Comprehensive Code of Conduct

This paper recommends the development and adoption of a comprehensive Code of Conduct that would be globally recognized and enforced for the improved security in the shipping trade, including some procedures on containers, which has become an important component of global commerce.

Dec. 1, 2004

Eliminating Adversary WMD: What's at Stake?

This Occasional Paper discusses the challenges and the lessons learned during Operation Iraqi Freedom concerning WMD elimination.

Dec. 1, 2004

Military Transformation and Joint Experimentation: Two Views from Above

Military transformation— “a process that shapes the changing nature of military competition and cooperation through new combinations of concepts, capabilities, people and organizations”— is on the minds and agendas of everyone dealing with the military. Many people talk about transformation; the two authors of this Defense Horizons have done something about it. In fact, they are among the few who have been responsible for shaping and implementing the concept. To get a better idea of what goes into this process, particularly the element of joint experimentation that is helping to identify and define the nature of change, Defense Horizons presents the views of two of America’s leading military officers who have been involved in the process.

Nov. 15, 2004

DTP-007: Shedding Light on the Battlefield: Tactical Applications of Photonic Technology

This paper addresses the growing availiability and dependence on tactical sensor technology on bandwidth for the battlfield and recommends the use of light, or photons, to transmit information. It highlights the advantages of photonics in three applications and discusses the economical and technological advantages for increasing the use of photonics for the U.S. government and military.

Nov. 1, 2004

DTP-006: Shaping Future Defense Budgets

This paper assesses key issues in the U.S. defense spending in the next decade and is intended to serve as a guide to analyzing the fiscal year 2006 budget submission.

Oct. 1, 2004

DTP-005: Bridging the Gap: European C4ISR Capabilities and Transatlantic Interoperability

This study analyzes the developed and planned C4ISR capabilities of seven European countries and examines the extent to which advanced C4ISR and network doctrines figure in the defense planning of these nations and explore the content of interoperability within and between these national forces and between these forces and those of the United States.

Sept. 1, 2004

Needed—A NATO Stabilization and Reconstruction Force

At the Istanbul Summit in June 2004 , NATO endorsed the further transformation of military capabilities to make them “more modern, more usable, and more deployable to carry out the full range of Alliance missions.” The Istanbul Communiqué especially called for continuing progress on the NATO Response Force and the Prague Capabilities Commitments.

Sept. 1, 2004

DTP-004: Cooperative Threat Reduction for a New Era

The purpose of this study is to review the techniques developed and used by the Nunn-Lugar program to dat, including some closely related activities, and to recommend specific ways in which these techniques could be applied on a global basis to eliminate the various types of nuclear threats faced by the United States.

July 1, 2004

Defense Laboratories and Military Capability: Headed for a BRACdown?

For 150 years, military laboratories have made vital contributions to national defense. In recent years, they have been significantly reduced in number by several rounds of base realignment and closure (BRAC). Even so, they remain the primary source of internal technical competence within the Department of Defense (DOD). Their capability in that role will depend on how DOD answers two questions. Is there excess laboratory capacity - too many laboratories relative to forecasts of future force structure? What is their military value - their likely contribution to the future operational needs of warfighters.

July 1, 2004

Global Networks: Emerging Constraints on Strategy

If current trends in communications technologies and services persist, the United States will be hard pressed to keep a strategic advantage in network capability. The international telecommunications system is rebalancing into four major centers of influence and innovation. Within ten years, Europe, India, and China will have the same technological and innovative capabilities in telecommunications as the United States. This shift is problematic for U.S. national security, because the global telecommunications infrastructure is becoming an important strategic battlespace—the physical battlefield of information warfare. Understanding the dynamic of regional balancing is critical to shaping U.S. responses.

July 1, 2004

NATO Technology: from Gap to Divergence?

A widening technology gap between the United States and other NATO members will challenge the ability of NATO to function as a cohesive, multinational force. Over several decades, great disparities in the funding of defense research and technology by NATO members has produced a widening technological gap that threatens to become a divergence - a condition from which the Alliance may not be able to recover. The technology gap, in turn, is creating a capabilities gap that undercuts the operational effectiveness of NATO forces, including the new NATO Response Force.

July 1, 2004

Alternative Approaches to Army Transformation

Army transformation is an attempt to provide future forces with enhanced capabilities in lethality, survivability, and mobility, both strategic and tactical. Alternatives to achieving these goals differ in emphasis on weight and reliance on technology. That is, transformation plans differ if the objective is weight reduction as opposed to weight redistribution. In one approach, platform weight is reduced to meet mobility goals. However, shedding weight has implications for platform survivability and lethality; previous attempts to design a single platform that is simultaneously lethal, mobile, and survivable have not done so satisfactorily. Thus, advances in materials are required to insure the survivability of a lightweight platform. Advances in network technology are also required to make the platform more aware of its environment. The immaturity of these technologies increases the risks inherent in transformation based strictly on platform characteristics.

July 1, 2004

In the Tracks of Tamerlane: Central Asia’s Path to the 21st Century

Central Asia remains a relatively overlooked region compared to other parts of the world, yet energy reserves of gas and oil and recent focus on the region’s terrorist presence has made Central Asia increasingly important to understand. This book examines the course of events in Central Asia since independence, through the eyes of 22 specialists in the region. A product of the Pre-Conflict Management Tools project launched in April of 2003 by CTNSP, the purpose of the book is to increase understanding of the challenges faced by the region, with the goal of preventing or limiting the potential for conflict brought about by these challenges.

June 20, 2004

DTP-003: Who You Gonna Call? Responding to a Medical Emergency with the Strategic National Stockpile

This paper reviews the history and current status of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), provies an overview of its role in incident response, and reports on the testing of SNS deployment in recent terrorism exercises. It also explores regulatory and legal issues that surround the use of SNS and its importance to the U.S. military.

June 15, 2004

DTP-002: Hometown Hospitals: The Weakest Link? Bioterrorism Readiness in America’s Rural Hospitals

The delivery of medical care to infected populations and the containment of disearse spidmics

June 1, 2004

DTP-001: Looking for Trouble: A Policymaker’s Guide to Biosensing

A publication written to inform the non-technical policymaker to assist in reaching important decisions to prevent bioterrorism and biological attacks. In addition it presents results of an extensive statistical study examining the utility of a system-of-systems approach to identifying a bioattack.

April 1, 2004

Responsive Space and Strategic Information

American strategists face a daunting challenge; they must assure and defend American and allied interests, induce and encourage international security cooperation, and deter, dissuade, and defeat a diverse range of potential adversaries. This challenge has been addressed by senior political leadership in recent policy statements, such as the Nuclear Posture Review of 2002, and in the formation of an expanded U.S. Strategic Command, but this vision has not yet taken root in the Department of Defense components responsible for providing operational capability.

April 1, 2004

The Science and Engineering Workforce and National Security

Trends in the American science and engineering (S&E) workforce and national research and development (R&D) funding patterns and priorities have troubling implications for the economic and national security of our nation.

April 1, 2004

Transforming for Stabilization and Reconstruction Operations

Through superiority, recent military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq were exceptionally quick and successful in defeating the enemy. However, the Armed Forces were not adequately prepared to respond to lawlessness, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and attacks on coalition forces from unconventional insurgents. It is imperative to transform how the U.S. military prepares for and executes stabilization and reconstruction (S&R) operations.

Jan. 6, 2004

Effects of Directed Energy Weapons

Effects of Directed Energy Weapons is an encyclopedic treatment of how Directed Energy Weapons work, how the energy of these weapons is propagated to the target, and how the weapon/beam-target interaction creates effects (damage) in the target. This is a technical exposition, written at the undergraduate physics and engineering level that could serve either as a text book or as a reference text for technical practitioners. The text addresses Kinetic Energy Weapons in addition to Lasers, Microwaves and Particle Beams.

Jan. 1, 2004

Dirty Bombs: The Threat Revisited

Nuclear radiation, invisible and detectable only with special instruments, has the power to terrify—in part because of its association with nuclear weapons—and to become an instrument of terrorists. Radioactive isotopes can be spread widely with or without high explosives by a radiological dispersion device (RDD) or so-called dirty bomb. This paper provides a general overview of the nature of RDDs and sources of material for them and estimates the effects of an assault, including casualties and economic consequences. Many experts believe that an RDD is an economic weapon capable of inflicting devastating damage on the United States. This paper is in full agreement with that assessment and makes some quantitative estimates of the magnitude of economic disruption that can be produced by various levels of attack. It is also generally believed that even a very large RDD is unlikely to cause many human casualties, either immediately or over the long term. A careful examination of the consequences of the tragic accident in Goiânia, Brazil, however, shows that some forms of radiological attack could kill tens or hundreds of people and sicken hundreds or thousands. Nevertheless, contrary to popular belief, RDDs are not weapons of mass destruction.

Jan. 1, 2004

XVIII Airborne Corps: Spearhead of Military Transformation

War transforms armies. Combat accelerates transformation by moving it out of the realm of academic debate and endless speculation about the future to a pragmatic approach focused on fielding new capabilities within new combat formations as soon as possible. In war, transformation means conserving equipment and operational methods that are still relevant while incorporating new technologies, tactics, and organizations that enable victory. It is nearly impossible to replicate in peacetime training the true conditions of land warfare—ambiguity, uncertainty, and above all terror, killing, and exhaustion. For the Army, the best opportunity to transform involves parallel evolution, a method that moves new technologies into combat formations today and explores what the troops will actually do with them in action. With a conflict in progress, this approach is better than trying to predict future uses in an inflexible operational requirements document developed in isolation from the field environment.

Dec. 2, 2003

Changing Mindsets to Transform Security: Leader Development for an Unpredictable and Complex World

This book is a compilation of papers and discussions from the Third International Transformation Conference and Workshop on Leader Development in Washington, DC, on June 19-20, 2013. The event was sponsored by the NATO Headquarters Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, hosted at the National Defense University, and supported by the International Transformation Chairs Network.

Dec. 1, 2003

Commercial Information Technology Possibilities: Perspectives on its Future Role in Military Operations as Inspired by Visits to Selected Sites

There has been a substantial amount of discussion in the DOD community about the availability of commercially funded R&D products capable of supporting ongoing and anticipated military operations. Those who doubt the availability of such technological products point to the past necessity of military R&D investment to assure American technological superiority. Pundits who hold that commercial investments are currently producing products relevant to military operations point to the incredible growth of various consumer markets, e.g. electronics, telecommunications and personal computers. This report describes the efforts of the Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP) to assess the availability of Information Technology to support current and future military operations. In short, we wanted to consider whether there exist technological winners—or keepers—derived from research and development (R&D) investments initiated and sustained by private-sector firms. Based on the case studies derived from this study’s purposive sample, we believe strongly that currently available technological products can easily be adopted by users and institutions within DOD. Moreover, we assert that these technologies will be able to support future operations effectively.

Nov. 1, 2003

Hydrogen as a Fuel for DOD

Energy issues have been at the center of the national security debate for some time, and the current situation in the Persian Gulf underscores the strategic importance of sound energy policy. Activities or developments—geopolitical, environmental, technological, or regulatory—that materially change the energy security equation are, naturally, of great interest to the Department of Defense (DOD). The announcement by President George Bush in his State of the Union address that he intends to accelerate research and development (R&D) for hydrogen-powered vehicles toward the objective of total U.S. energy independence has great potential impact on DOD. This paper examines a number of technical issues connected with energy independence through hydrogen and how they might affect DOD. We conclude that the move to a hydrogen economy will be a massive undertaking, requiring large investments and decades to accomplish. We will show that, with few exceptions, pure hydrogen is not a viable fuel for DOD missions, primarily because of the DOD requirement for compact, high-volumetric energy density power sources. As a result, to meet its unique needs, DOD likely will have to increase its dependence on nuclear power and support R&D that investigates ways to use hydrogen to synthesize hydrocarbon fuels in an environmentally compliant fashion. Several suggestions and recommendations will be made in this regard.

Nov. 1, 2003

Alternative Governance: A Tool forMilitary Laboratory Reform

Throughout the Cold War, the United States maintained an edge over adversaries by fielding technologically superior warfighting systems. This strategy depended on a strong research and development (R&D) effort in both the public and private sectors, and the community of military laboratories in the Department of Defense played an essential role in the overall effort. Because of the importance of these labs during the Cold War, defense planners continually focused on ways to improve and strengthen them.