WASHINGTON: Arsenal plane. It’s a great name, no? And the Hyper Velocity Projectile. Whoa. Fast flying swarming micro drones. Neat! There’s much more being developed, but it’s classified. Where is all this coming from? The Strategic Capabilities Office, or SCO for short. Defense Secretary Ash Carter t alked up the new office in his 2017 budget preview speech on Tuesday morning. I understand the SCO is not only developing key capabilities: It is the home of much of what Carter’s calling the Third Offset Strategy , the Pentagon’s effort to bolster America’s global power in ways that Russia and China cannot easily counter . Carter created it in 2012 “to help us to re-imagine existing DOD and intelligence community and commercial systems by giving them new roles and game-changing capabilities to confound potential enemies — the emphasis here was on rapidity of fielding, not 10 and 15-year programs. Getting stuff in the field quickly.” Ash Carter previews 2017 budget at Washington Economic Club Since he clearly thought they were doing a good job, Carter expanded the role of the office to make longer-term investments as well, which makes sense given that it’s the Strategic Capabilities […]
