Creative Weapons Market Goes Global.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: Cheaper wars - Brief Article

U.S. scientists aren't the only ones finding creative ways to fight wars, cautioned Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at NASA'S Langley Research Center, in Hampton, Va. Weapons researchers around the world are hard at work finding ways to fight "wars on the cheap," he warned.

Bushnell made his comments at a conference sponsored by the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, headquartered in Arlington, Va.

About 70 percent of the world's weapons research now takes place outside of the United States, Bushnell explained. As a result of this research, "an immense number of things are changing at once," he said. "A revolution is under way in the affordability, survivability and effectiveness of weapons platforms."

As a result, Bushnell said, more and more nations are able to afford dependable, highly accurate weapons systems, such as transoceanic unmanned air and underwater vehicles and cruise missiles.

This puts U.S. surface ships, aircraft and even the civilian population at risk, Bushnell said. "Eighty percent of the population of the continental United States lives within 50 miles of the coast line," he noted.

The spread of inexpensive technologies threatens to undermine the U.S. advantage as a superpower, Bushnell said. Suddenly, he noted, the United States is not the only nation with sophisticated weapons. Instead, he said, "we're becoming just one of the crowd."

The Democratic Party's vice presidential nominee, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, of Connecticut, agreed.

"As a nation, we are in danger of jeopardizing our military technological advantage," Lieberman--a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee--told the conference. "We've seen a systematic decline in investments for science and technology research and support for the national laboratories.

"Technology is the key for transforming our military into a force that will be dominant not only now, but in the future." If Congress fails to support research to develop new technology, he said, "then, the United States will not retain its military superiority."

The nation should...