This article is part of a new series on The Strategy Bridge analyzing some of the issues surrounding the problem of #TechnologyInnovation.

The U.S. military has enjoyed a comfortable lead in the race for new battlefield technology since the end of World War II. In recent years, however, the rate of technology change has challenged the U.S. military’s ability to remain strategically superior to near peers while providing the warfighter with nimble and fiscally sustainable technology. This is a multifaceted problem. Some organizations across the Pentagon are focusing on exploring new technologies, while others seek to tackle acquisition reform, and futurists continue to opine about the battlefield of tomorrow. Moreover, few have attempted to synchronize these facets to focus on the needs of today’s warfighter. The essays in this special series on #TechnologyInnovation seek to do so.

For the purposes of this series on The Strategy Bridge, we brought together a unique cross-functional team of military students from the Naval Postgraduate School’s Defense Analysis Department, supported by academics and private-sector professionals to collectively tackle this question across a number of discrete areas. Taken as a whole, the pieces presented consider the broader techno-strategic cycle, spanning (1) the initial identification of emerging technology, (2) the intellectual effort to project how such technologies interact with strategy in the operational space, (3) the bureaucratic challenges surrounding adoption, and (4) issues of counter-measures, diffusion to rivals, and the endless search for tomorrow’s game changer that will supplant today’s.

We hope you enjoy this series!

Have a response or an idea for your own article? Follow the logo below, and you too can contribute to The Bridge:

Enjoy what you just read? Please help spread the word to new readers by sharing it on social media.

Header Image: Humans and Technology (PC Revue)