Annual Science and Engineering Technology Conference (19th). Held in Austin, Texas on 20-22 March 2018

For more than 40 years, the United States and its allies could count on a decisive technological advantage through DoD Science and Technology and defense industrial base independent research and development investments. We now live in a world where there is global access to technology and scientific talent. Our competitors are investing in technologies and developing capabilities that are directly designed to counter U.S. warfighting advantages. We can no longer ignore these challenges to our technological superiority. Our adversaries have watched the way we fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have seen our newest equipment, watched our tactics and procedures, and observed our latest concepts of operation. They are using this knowledge to develop counters to our asymmetric advantages. Sustaining U.S. technological superiority depends on our ability to out-innovate our adversaries, but it is also important to remember that innovation is more than just the development of leading-edge technology. It is about finding the right combination of technologies and operational and organizational constructs to achieve a decisive military advantage. Inserting and integrating new technologies into prototypes and experiments can demonstrate the new capabilities and, at the same time, help define realistic operational requirements and reduce program risk. The source of new technologies may be the DoD Science and Technology program, the commercial sector, the defense industrial base independent research and development program, or SBIRSTTR investments. When coupled with the commercial best practices of combining modeling and simulation, test and evaluation, and systems engineering to develop and assess several real and virtual prototypes, there is a good chance to reduce costs and acquisition program risk. This years conference is structured to allow for maximum government and industry interaction opportunities.