The U.S. military is accelerating the development of prompt global strike weapons that are intended to allow the U.S. to hit targets anywhere on Earth on short notice using conventional weapons.
The Department of Defense has requested increased funding in FY 2019 for prompt global strike weapons — $278 million, up from $201 million in FY 2018 — with further increases anticipated for the next five years.
“This shows the growing priority placed on the program in the Pentagon and the growing interest in Congress in moving the program forward toward deployment,” according to a newly updated report on such weapons from the Congressional Research Service.
See Conventional Prompt Global Strike and Long-Range Ballistic Missiles: Background and Issues by Amy F. Woolf, April 6, 2018.
Other new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following.
Options to Cease Implementing the Iran Nuclear Agreement, updated April 5, 2018
Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis: Recent Developments and Issues for Congress, CRS Insight, April 6, 2018
When the City Goes Broke: Pensions, Retirees, and Municipal Bankruptcies, CRS Legal Sidebar, April 10, 2018
Sexual Harassment and Title VII: Selected Legal Issues, April 9, 2018
Commerce Department Announces Citizenship Question on 2020 Census and Lawsuits Filed, CRS Legal Sidebar, April 6, 2018
Lame Duck Sessions of Congress, 1935-2016 (74th-114th Congresses), April 6, 2018
Statutory Interpretation: Theories, Tools, and Trends, April 5, 2018
Assigning persistent digital identifiers (Digital Object Identifiers, or DOIs) and using ORCIDs (Open Researcher and Contributor IDs) for key personnel to track outputs for research grants will improve the accountability and transparency of federal investments in research and reduce reporting burden.
Research funding agencies should apply the content of grant applications to AI tools to predict the future of scientific and technological breakthroughs, enhance peer review, and encourage better research investment decisions by both the public and the private sector.
To meet growing tech industry energy demands without imposing a staggering toll on individual energy consumers, Congress should create a pathway for data centers to be viably integrated into Thermal Energy Networks.
Rebuilding such labs in a 21st century “Bell Labs X” form would restore a powerful and uniquely American approach to technoscientific discovery—harnessing the private sector to discover and invent in ways that fundamentally improve U.S. national and economic competitiveness.