The Defense Department recently announced it was paring down its list of "critical technology areas" from 14 to six, focusing on applied artificial intelligence, biomanufacturing, contested logistics, quantum and battlefield information dominance, scaled directed energy, and scaled hypersonics. While this streamlining aims to concentrate funding, the Pentagon's approach risks creating significant blind spots by disproportionately investing in AI, which already attracts substantial private capital, while neglecting other vital technologies.
For instance, advanced materials, foundational for hypersonics and stealth systems, received less than 10 percent of the fiscal year 2025 budget allocated to "trusted AI and autonomy." Similarly, solar technology, crucial for energy resilience and remote operations, is underfunded despite proven commercial innovations like perovskite tandem solar cells, which Swift Solar was able to successfully demonstrate in a Defense Department exercise. The article advocates for a new strategy involving a landscape analysis of federal investments, identification of market gaps where commercial solutions fall short, and robust inter-service engagement to overcome nontechnical barriers. This data-driven, tiered priority list, similar to the Microelectronics Commons initiative established in November 2022, would enable strategic public-private partnerships to address critical, overlooked technological shortfalls vital for national defense.
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