Emerging Technologies Institute Shaping Future of National Defense.

• Author: Punaro, Arnold

In this era of seemingly constant advances in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics and biotechnology, the nation and its security are at a pivotal crossroads.

We, as a nation, whether in the Defense Department, Congress, the defense industrial base, academia or the commercial sector, must find ways to work together to win the ongoing competitions that will shape the future of global security and commerce. The key to winning these competitions is being the first and best at developing and deploying emerging technologies and dominating the new defense and commercial opportunities they represent.

To date, National Defense Industrial Association corporate members representing all sizes and sectors have encountered a variety of roadblocks in their efforts to field new technologies. These include challenges with scaling innovative technologies at the speed of relevance, dealing with political gridlock, facing antiquated government business practices, managing a brittle technical workforce and countering aggressive actions by China, including cybertheft and the use of unfair business practices.

Because of these roadblocks, the United States is not sufficiently prepared to research, develop, test, field and modernize the technologies of the future.

The NDIA board heard these concerns and took a significant step in 2021--establishing the Emerging Technologies Institute, the purpose of which is to raise the association's voice in the dialogue on how best to develop and deploy emerging technologies; convene forums where members can engage with the Pentagon, allies and industry on key technological issues; and to educate members, the Pentagon and Congress about the technologies themselves.

ETI immediately hit the ground running. The team began engaging small businesses, universities and commercial firms, expanding the size and character of the association's membership. They launched a highly successful podcast, educational activities, convened several workshops on critical technology areas and focused on bringing solutions to pressing defense technology challenges.

Since then, and now under the leadership of Dr. Arun Seraphin, the team's work on behalf of NDIA has only expanded.

This spring, the institute released a major report on hypersonics supply chains, looking at over-the-horizon problems even beyond the technical challenges that hypersonic programs face today. They analyzed the critical supply chains needed to produce hypersonic...