U.S. Military To Keep Robotic Edge in Face of $400 Billion Cuts
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn said the U.S. will maintain its lead in unmanned robotic technology in the face of a $400 billion reduction in defense spending.
“Robotics and unmanned technology is a key future” for the U.S. military, Lynn said in Paris today ahead of this year’s Air Show. The Pentagon will also seek to maintain a lead in cyber security and the capability to strike long-range targets using a combination of missiles, aircraft and electronic attack, he said at briefing.
The Pentagon is reviewing its long-range spending plans to meet President Barack Obama’s goal of reducing spending over 12 years to help cut the U.S. deficit. Outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, his successor, have said all defense programs are under review.
“No country with a weak economy is going to be strong militarily,” Lynn said. “So, it’s a strategic imperative that we tackle the budget deficit” including ways to reduce defense spending.
Still, there are some areas of emerging military strength the U.S. will try to preserve, including unmanned robotic technologies, because it’s not clear “the exact shape they will take, or the precise advantages they will confer” Lynn said in prepared remarks that he plans to deliver at a dinner organized by the U.S. Aerospace Industries Association.
The trade-group’s members include Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) the world’s largest defense contractor, Boeing Co. (BA), Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC) and Raytheon Co. (RTN)
Stealth Technology
Lynn likened the effort to preserve some military technologies during the budget downturn to the U.S. push in the 1970s, when defense spending declined in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the Pentagon still continued to invest in so- called stealth technologies. Those technologies include materials that help military aircraft reduce their radar signature and thereby avoid detection by adversaries.
“If not for our careful stewardship in the lean years of the 1970s, it would have been left on the drawing board,” Lynn said.
The U.S. Air Force’s F-22 and F-35 jet fighters, both made by Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed, are stealth airplanes.
The U.S. Air Force is seeking $197 million in the fiscal year 2012 budget to begin work on a new bomber that will be part of a family of long-range strike systems. The military service has said these systems may also include unmanned airplanes, missiles and planes that can disable enemy radar.
The long-range strike systems would enable the U.S. military to hit targets deep inside enemy territory.
“There’s going to be a cyber dimension to any future conflict,” Lynn said. “Given our reliance on information technology for our military we need to be able to defend” the networks from attacks, he said.
The Pentagon and defense contractors have faced attacks on their cyber networks. Lockheed on June 4 said its computers faced an assault after data from a security provider was stolen in March.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gopal Ratnam in Paris at gratnam1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net
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