The Pentagon’s Shew provides a ‘sneak peek’ of the team’s technology strategy

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is about to release a sweeping science and technology strategy focused on improving joint operations, pushing successful prototypes faster into production and strengthening the Defense Department’s research and development workforce.

Deputy Defense Secretary Heidi Shiu said her team has completed the National Defense Science and Technology Strategy, which was drafted last year to outline how the department will use new technologies to counter threats from adversaries including China and Russia.

Speaking at a virtual National Defense Industrial Association event on April 13, Shiu presented what she called a “secret view” of the document, which is awaiting approval from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The report will “come out very soon,” she said, without giving a date.

A major focus of the science and technology plan outlined in the Biden administration’s National Defense Strategy, released in October, is supporting capabilities that improve military interoperability during conflict.

Shiu said, “Everything we’re doing is focused on joint warfighting capabilities and what we need to do as a joint force. “The ability to develop in that arena is what drives a lot of our focus, especially in prototyping. [and] experiment”

She highlighted the Defense Department’s Rapid Defense Test Reserve, or RDER, which is conducting advanced demonstrations aimed at addressing high-demand capability gaps. The first of these tests is underway and is focused on long-range fires.

The second priority outlined in the strategy is to transfer technology demonstrated through test campaigns, including RDER, into the hands of military users. Shew said her office is working closely with the Pentagon’s acquisition and sustainment team.

That focus is consistent with the recommendations of the Atlantic Council’s Defense Innovation Adoption Commission, which released an April 12 report that included 10 policy proposals to improve the Pentagon’s adoption of innovative technology. One of those ideas was to reduce the time between system visualization and deployment by establishing a fund that the military would use to accelerate and expand new capabilities.

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Shue described the third focus of the strategy, which is to strengthen the department’s research and development “talent pipeline” to universities. She said her office’s Smart Scholarship program has provided college students with job opportunities at one of the DoD laboratories. Participants are expected to match their internship period with post-university service with the department.

“If we pay your scholarship for four years, it’s a fee for service, assuming you owe four years of service at one of our institutions,” she said. I can tell you that we have a very high retention rate even after the students complete their commitment to us.