$18B “Third Offset” Initiative to Deter Adversaries

WarontheRocks.com reported that the Defense Department’s third offset initiative unleashes game-changing technology – and entrepreneurs with robotics products that fill the bill should take note. This technology development quest is to ensure military deterrence with respect to such potential adversaries as China and Russia, and has a budget of $18 billion. The story adds: Going from science fiction to reality is the dream of many an engineer or inventor who has envisioned a flying-car commute or teleportation to the beach. It’s not usually the domain of practical defense policy wonks. But that’s what makes the Defense Department’s third offset strategy different. The so-named quest for conventional military deterrence against China and Russia through the Pentagon’s use of game-changing technology now has a bureaucratic brand inside the Beltway. The third offset also has a budget, some $18 billion, to spend on fulfilling a vision of a future in which electromagnetic railguns shoot down hundreds of incoming cruise missiles, lasers slice through enemy warships, and robotic wingmen fly in first on the deadliest missions.