A-Z of critical and emerging tech will ‘inform’ strategy, says NSTC
The US National Science and Technology Council (‘NSTC’) has published a report listing critical and emerging technologies (‘CET’), which, it says, ‘are a subset of advanced technologies that are potentially significant to U.S. national security.’
NSTC notes that the ‘2021 Interim National Security Strategic Guidance defines three national security objectives: protect the security of the American people, expand economic prosperity and opportunity, and realize and defend democratic values,’ and that the list ‘identifies CETs with the potential to further these objectives and builds on the October 2020 National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies, which contains an initial list of priority CETs.’
The listed CETs (excluding subsets) includes:
- Advanced Computing
- Advanced Engineering Materials
- Advanced Gas Turbine Engine Technologies
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Advanced and Networked Sensing and Signature Management
- Advanced Nuclear Energy Technologies
- Artificial Intelligence
- Autonomous Systems and Robotics
- Biotechnologies
- Communication and Networking Technologies
- Directed Energy
- Financial Technologies
- Human-Machine Interfaces
- Hypersonics
- Networked Sensors and Sensing
- Quantum Information Technologies
- Renewable Energy Generation and Storage
- Semiconductors and Microelectronics
- Space Technologies and Systems
The preface to the document reads: ‘Although not a strategy itself, this updated CET list will inform a forthcoming strategy on U.S. technological competitiveness and national security. This list may also inform future efforts to prioritize across CETs and their component subfields; however, this list should not be interpreted as a priority list for either policy development or funding. Instead, this list should be used as a resource to: inform future efforts that promote U.S. technological leadership; cooperate with allies and partners to advance and maintain shared technological advantages; develop, design, govern, and use CETs that yield tangible benefits for society and are aligned with democratic values; and develop U.S. Government measures that respond to threats against U.S. security.’
