Growth Opportunities in Future Defense Technologies, 2024-2033

Evaluation of Emerging Technologies in Energy, Artificial Intelligence, and Materials Science and their Impact on the Defense Sector

The pace of technological change continues to accelerate, exposing significant limitations in militaries’ technological abilities to combat emerging threats. The introduction of new technologies has created new vulnerabilities for military forces, demanding strategies to meet a wide range of threats that are becoming more lethal, diversified, hybrid, and versatile. Civilian companies in the defense space are outpacing traditional defense incumbents for a variety of reasons. Traditional defense technology development involved lengthy cycles, with a requirement for dependable, robust, and complex systems that primarily relied on public funding.

Contrarily, modern commercial companies, which are characterized by faster innovation loops and increased private investment, emphasize rapid prototyping and testing with short lead times to production. This idea of rapid innovation and development is propelling the sector. Future technological advancements will be increasingly interconnected, with progress in one area driving development in adjacent and complementary areas. Anticipating the future of the armed forces necessitates tracking these interconnected technologies, as breakthroughs in one area can significantly impact related technologies. As a result, promising future technologies must be evaluated early in their development and production cycles to maximize impact and minimize risk. While some technologies from the previous study have seen widespread adoption, including cloud computing and data analytics, other technologies are still being explored.