The defense budget has received boosts for two years running—by $48 billion in 2002 and $34 billion more for 2003. The problem? None of these funds has been earmarked for long-term basic research and development, for interim replacement of obsolescent systems, or for improved procurement processes.
Such items require careful advance planning, especially with regard to initial feasibility studies and concept development contracts. Future budgets should give strong consideration to:
- A Coast Guard unmanned aerial vehicle capability for real-time image transmission of suspect ships approaching U.S. territorial waters—whether high-speed drug runners or tramp cargo vessels possibly carrying terrorists. Armed unmanned aerial vehicles would facilitate pursuit and capture of drug-running speedboats.
- Initiation of a new air-cushioned landing craft (LCAC). Our inventory of Bell Textron LCACs is aging, and better vehicle choices should be considered. We need to look at Soviet designs (such as the Pomornik, Aist, and Lebed classes) that were in service 20 years ago, were better armed, and performed better than our current landing craft.
- An MV-22 successor. The MV-22 might be the best offer on the table to replace our geriatric helicopter fleet, but during its most critical modes of vertical takeoff and descent, it is a very inefficient design. Whether or not we buy the Osprey, we must start designing its successor now—giving strong consideration to a tilt-wing design that would eliminate drag and subwing turbulence from downwash. A clean-slate concept is needed, but as a springboard, data still exist from the X-18 tilt-wing of the 1950s and the X-22 ducted-fan prototype developed by Bell Textron in the 1960s.
- Supersonic stealth cruise missiles. Successful tactical high-energy laser (THEL) development by the U.S. Army in conjunction with the Israeli Ministry of Defense has jeopardized our entire precision-guided munitions inventory, which is subsonic. Russia and China already are working on a THEL equivalent, and after fielding it, they will sell it to client states currently buying their other weapons. Meanwhile, the United States lags behind in supersonic cruise missile development.
- THEL installation in new all-electric ships. Our THEL prototype has proved itself against flights of incoming Katyusha rockets. Its size and weight will shrink, and on our new surface combatants with integrated electric drive it needs to be a key defense against Mach-3 sea-skimming antiship missiles in service with Russia and China.
- New research facilities. Carderock is superb, as are some of NASA's wind tunnel facilities. What we need, however, is akin to Russia's renowned Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute. We must build a state-of-the-art, world-leading center for the study of fluid flow—liquid and gaseous. Regimes explored would benefit surface warfare programs, aircraft design, the commercial sector, and even those borderline areas where the Soviets surprised us with their experimental wing-in-ground-effect (WIG) transport prototypes more than two decades ago. Boeing has been working on its massive "Pelican Project" conceptual study—its down-drooped wings span 500 feet, capable of transporting 750 tons or more of cargo over 10,000 miles of ocean.
Inclusion of the items listed here will be fruitless without improvement in two areas: congressional support and oversight of the procurement and development process. How do we get congressmen to think past their own next elections and the short-term funneling of job bucks to their home communities. Long-term national defense efficiency is at stake. Unneeded bases must be closed and no funding should be expended on unneeded or poorly designed weapons, no matter how strong the lobbying pressure from politicians or industry.
Clearly, much is needed: investment in specific defense inventory follow-on programs and additional basic research facilities—not to mention a thorough overhaul of the defense procurement process and development oversight. We must start now.
Mr. Gaillard’s articles on defense issues have appeared in Proceedings, Defense News, Armed Forces Journal International, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and other magazines and newspapers around the country.