Former top executives at various Department of Defense research facilities called on Congress Wednesday to ease hiring restrictions and contracting rules to facilitate the Pentagon’s work on cutting-edge weapons and other technology.
The ongoing federal budget freeze and strict regulations covering security clearance have made it more difficult for military research facilities to attract young talent and have slowed research on new technologies, the experts agreed. The budget freeze, part of the so-called sequestration process enacted under the Obama administration, is contributing to lower hiring levels, suggested Ricky Peters, former executive director of the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Peters was one of four former research directors appearing before the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities during the hearing on DoD Laboratories and Their Contributions to Military Operation and Readiness. Joining him was the former deputy assistant Secretary Of Defense For Research for the Secretary of Defense; the former director of the Engineer Research And Development Center for the Army Corps Of Engineers; and the former director of Research at the Naval Research Laboratory.
The former executives were free to discuss top secret projects and other initiatives in a way that current leadership is unable to. The suggestions will be used as part of the annual DoD appropriations process.
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), chairman of the subcommittee, asked the military research experts how the DoD could reach out and better involve local companies, like an Iowa manufacturer of high-strength body armor, into the research and procurement process. Ernst discussed how she thinks the military could also benefit from studies at the University of Iowa into human avatar testing with which faux humans are used instead of animals to test the effects of various environments on people.
Dr. Melissa Flagg, former deputy assistant Secretary Of Defense for Research, agreed with Ernst and said it is important to bring local innovators into the process. “If we can develop places, times and meetings where folks can share their products we all would benefit from that,” Flagg said.
The one-time DoD research executives agreed with assertions from Senate panel members that the military research projects are having a difficult time competing for talent with private-sector high tech ventures and that many of their laboratory facilities are outdated.
In a response to a question by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), who was appearing as a non-member of the panel, Flagg said the US military has to make a renewed commitment to leading the technology race. She said it is not just a question of DoD funding, but funding for other science facilities, like the National Institutes of Health. “We really need to think about new strategies in an era of parity,” said Flagg, of allusions to Chinese work on advanced technology. “We have to make new investments in processes that let us think bigger.”
Several of the witnesses explained advanced technologies being worked on by the labs.
Dr. John Montgomery, former director of Research at the Naval Research Laboratory, briefly discussed an electro-magnetic rail gun that would use the science of spintronics to shoot down cruise missiles at hypersonic speeds; bio printing projects which will give humans the ability to take skin cells and use 3D printing to print new body organs; synthetic biology for use in fuels; or body armor coated with enzymes that break down chemicals in biological weapons and render them harmless.
Dr. Jeffery Holland, past director of the Army Engineer Research and Development Center, said the ERDC is working with NASA to develop 3D printing technology capable of printing custom-designed expeditionary structures on demand, in the field, using concrete sourced from locally available materials.