
NATIONAL DEFENSE SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY 2023
1
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
2023 National Defense Science and
Technology Strategy
SHARPENING OUR COMPETITIVE EDGE
— 2022 National Defense Strategy
“Building the future Joint Force that we need to advance the
goals of this strategy requires broad and deep change in how
we produce and manage military capability. U.S. competitors
increasingly hold at risk our defense ecosystem – the
Department, the defense industrial base, and the landscape
of private sector and academic enterprises that innovate and
support the systems on which the Joint Force depends.”
Introduction
As the 2022 National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy (NDS) make clear, the United States is in the midst of
a decisive decade where the terms of geopolitical competition between the world’s major powers will be set. The Department
of Defense (DoD) will advance its priorities in three interlocking ways – through integrated deterrence, campaigning, and by
building enduring advantages. Accelerated technology advancement and innovation are key elements to achieving DoD priorities
through these strategic ways, and to ensure our national security over the long term. U.S. and allied leadership in technology
and innovation has long been part of our military advantage. We must take steps to preserve our leadership and counter our
competitors who have taken direct aim at this advantage. To respond to this challenge, the NDS calls for “broad and deep
change in how we produce and manage military capability…to construct an enduring foundation for our military advantage.”
In accordance with the NDS, our defense science
and technology enterprise must “leverage asymmetric
American advantages: our entrepreneurial spirit and our
diversity and pluralistic system of ideas and technology
generation that drive unparalleled creativity, innovation,
and adaptation.” Through these asymmetric advantages
we will create, analyze, test, acquire, and protect the
knowledge and tools needed to meet the three strategic
ways of the NDS.
In this Science and Technology Strategy, we establish the ways to sharpen our competitive edge. We will focus on the Joint
Mission, create and eld capabilities at speed and scale, and ensure the foundations for research and development.
The Defense Science and Technology Challenge
In the past, the Department’s leadership in science and technology provided the United States and our allies and partners
with unmatched capabilities. However, advanced science and technology are now available worldwide. Infused with private
investment, companies around the world conduct research and development with dual-use commercial and defense applications.
These changes in commercial markets have altered the dynamics for who creates cutting-edge knowledge and tools for the
military and how countries access them. The DoD must be more proactive with its engagements with the private sector to
make the right investments to capitalize on emerging technologies, as well as to preempt adversary attempts to do the same by
protecting critical and emerging technologies early in the development cycle.
We must also solve increasingly complex security challenges that involve science and technology. These challenges range from
countering cyber-attacks to securing our supply chains, from defending against advanced offensive technologies, to addressing
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