Defense department takes steps to energize cutting-edge research.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

The Defense Department is reorganizing its technology shop as it tries to light a fire under its science programs.

"Our technological superiority is under some threat," said Alan Shaffer, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering.

Leading-edge innovation at the Defense Department has been on a 20-year hiatus, Shaffer said in a recent interview. The sluggish pace of military research and technology development has sparked concern in the upper echelons of the Pentagon and prompted an examination of how it spends its $70 billion annual R&D budget.

"We've been looking at this for a couple of years," said Shaffer. There was a realization that the Pentagon's science efforts had become stagnant following the end of the Cold War and 13 years of counterinsurgency wars. "Now we're starting to see other countries using advanced electronic warfare, missiles and other technologies that will stress us," said Shaffer. "We are trying to really focus the R&D budget."

An innovation deficit partly has been blamed on budget cuts and short-term funding measures that have slowed efforts down. But a lack of vision also has been a problem. Programs are hailed as "game changers" one day and canceled the next. Internal turf rivalries at the Pentagon have made it difficult to create cohesive technology investment plans as money invested in one program might come at the expense of another.

To regain its tech edge, the Pentagon is realigning research priorities, centralizing the oversight of R&D projects and looking for better ways to work with the private sector.

It has identified 17 technology portfolios --which Shaffer described as "communities of interest" because each includes representatives from the Pentagon's laboratories, organizations like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and from each branch of the military.

The 17 portfolios are data and analytics, engineering resilient systems, cyber technology, electronic warfare, countering weapons of mass destruction, autonomy, human systems, advanced electronics, air platforms, biomedical, countering improvised explosive devices, energy and power, ground and sea platforms, materials and manufacturing, sensors, space, and weapons.

Each portfolio is overseen by a senior defense official, Shaffer said. "We are trying to get a more coherent, integrated plan so industry can come to one place instead of having to chase down the Army, Navy and Air Force. This will reduce...