Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
progress against these difficult problems, the Air Force must continue to make
well-placed, long-term investments in basic research appropriate to its missions.
These shortfalls have been recognized in congressional hearings, as noted by
the House Committee on Science in its press release on the results of a 2001 NRC
report:
5
The panel recommended that overall Air Force spending on science and tech-
nology should be increased by one-and-a-half to two times its current level.
6
They have also been mentioned in government data analyses:
While DoD continues to be the largest Federal funder of R&D, the FY 2002
budget request for DoD was below actual obligations in FY 1990. The DoD
share of Federal obligations for R&D and R&D plant has fallen from 57 percent
in FY 1990 to an expected 40 percent in FY 2002. The last time the DoD share
was this small was in FY 1979 when the agency provided 43 percent of the
Federal total. DoD's R&D and R&D plant dollars have dropped at an average
annual rate of nearly 1 percent (a 3-percent decrease in constant 1996 dollars)
between FYs 1990 and 2002.
7
The political and economic context of DoD S&T activities has changed
substantially. Industry must deal with global competition, and the commercial
market has become much larger than the military market. This has several impli-
cations for DoD research:
•
The commercial sector is driving near-term advances in components and
systems,
•
The DoD must incorporate commercial products into its systems and
provide ruggedization and military specialization as an overlayer,
•
Increased international competition is forcing industry to focus on the
near term at the cost of longer-term investments in fundamental and
applied research.
Figure 5-5 illustrates these points for semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs),
a critical area of micro- and nanotechnology. Similar relationships exist in many
other technology areas relevant to the Air Force, such as wireless communica-
tions and jet engines. In 1976, military purchases accounted for 17 percent of IC
worldwide sales ($700 million out of total sales of $4.2 billion)—a significant
market share that gave the DoD leverage in defining product specifications and
directions. Over the ensuing 20 years, the military market increased only margin-
ally, to $1.1 billion, while the commercial market exploded, to $160 billion.
Today the commercial market is over $200 billion, with the military market
accounting for less than 1 percent of sales. (The data for 2000 were from a
different source and include all government purchases of ICs, not only military
purchases.) Clearly, the commercial market has become the dominant force in
setting product directions. DoD must use predominantly commercial products—
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