Service Laboratory Chiefs Talk Military Tech Devt Efforts In Support of DoD’s 3rd Offset Strategy

Laboratory directors from three service branches have said their labs have begun research and development work on technology platforms for warfighters in support of the Defense Department’s Third Offset Strategy, DoD News reported Friday.

Cheryl Pellerin writes Maj. Gen. Robert McMurry, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, testified Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee’s emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee and said that President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2017 budget request seeks to allocate approximately $2.5 billion for the service branch’s science and technology efforts.

“The budget request provides funding for the small advanced-capability missile; the low-cost delivery vehicle; the high-speed strike weapon demonstration; component weapons technology; and for position, navigation and timing technologies in direct support of the third offset,” McMurry said.

He added that the proposed science and tech allocation represents a 4.5 percent increase over the administration’s budget request for FY 2016, Pellerin reports.

Edward Franchi, acting director of research at the Naval Research Laboratory, discussed NRL’s R&D efforts in the field of railguns and laser weapons during his testimony before the House panel.

Franchi also cited NRL’s adoption of rapid prototyping and experimentation process to demonstrate the operational functions of technology platforms, according to the report.

Philip Perconti, acting director of the Army Research Laboratory, and Jeffery Holland, chief of the Army Corps of Engineers’ Army Engineer Research and Development Center, also testified before the House committee about ARL’s Open Campus business model and ERDC’s efforts to develop technologies that work to protect troops from rocket attacks, the report added.