The U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) has released a new Science and Technology Strategy that outlines how the organization plans to prioritize research and accelerate the delivery of new technologies to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
According to officials, the strategy comes at a time of “heightened strategic competition, rapid and relentless technological change, and an evolving battlespace.” The strategy calls for a fundamental transformation of how ONR prioritizes, develops, and deploys technology to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
“Resource allocation is much of what we do. Therefore, ensuring that we are allocating our portfolios to the highest and best uses at any given time (and adjusting as new data emerges) is the core of what we must do well to accomplish our mission,” Chief of Naval Research Rachel Riley wrote in a letter included in the strategy.
ONR’s investment portfolio stretches from Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 1 (observing basic principles) to TRL 6 or 7 (demonstration in a relevant or operational environment), which, according to Riley, is a strength and a responsibility, “as we must carefully steward technologies to, and often through, the infamous ‘Valley of Death.’”
“In this important moment in time, we have embarked on a journey to refine how we do every part of our business – to make transparent what we are solving for, what bets we will place across our portfolio, and how we will measure whether and how they have paid off,” Riely said.
The strategy identifies 11 science and technology focus areas and 63 subordinate research areas to guide ONR’s long-term investment decisions. The focus areas are:
- AI and autonomy
- Command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and naval space
- Directed energy and kinetic systems
- Human and biological systems
- Manufacturing
- Materials and electronics
- Naval aerospace
- Naval engineering
- Ocean, atmosphere, and space
- Power and energy
- Undersea systems
ONR’s ‘FEED at Speed’ framework
The strategy is organized around a five-part approach that ONR calls “FEED at Speed”: Focus, Explain, Engage, Deploy, and Speed.
Under the “Focus” pillar, ONR will concentrate talent and resources on what it calls “Only ONR” problems, or high-impact naval challenges that only the organization can address, while divesting from programs outside that scope.
The “Explain” element calls for communicating the naval relevance and a credible transition path for every program in ONR’s portfolio to stakeholders, including the acquisition community and Congress.
Under “Engage,” ONR plans to work more frequently, transparently, and effectively with stakeholders across the defense ecosystem, including acquisition executives, operational commanders, industry, and academia.
The “Deploy” pillar emphasizes fielding technology as quickly as possible in partnership with the acquisition community and warfighters while measuring outcomes rather than prototypes.
The strategy’s “Speed” component includes using artificial intelligence (AI) organizational changes to accelerate invention, innovation, and problem-solving.
As part of that effort, ONR plans to increase the integration of AI into its own workflows through what it describes as a new “research by AI” approach.
“ONR will begin a strategic initiative to not only research AI for naval use cases but also use AI to conduct basic and applied research. The goal is to achieve machine-driven acceleration in research to outpace adversaries in the discovery, invention and fielding of new technology,” the strategy reads.
ONR also plans to explore how AI-produced hypotheses, results, and designs will be validated – whether by human review, experimental confirmation, or independent AI critique.
“The first two validation methods reintroduce the human bottleneck and may diminish the acceleration we seek, but independent AI critique introduces another part of the initiative, where AI can be used to validate, red-team and quality-check not only results from AI performers, but also from human performers,” the strategy states.
“In all cases, ONR will develop governance and human oversight frameworks with defined ethical and security guardrails,” it adds.
The strategy also states that ONR will invest in training and deploying specialized AI assistant tools to help program officers stay current with rapidly changing technology, identify new research and nontraditional performers, synthesize researchers’ results, and automate routine administrative tasks.
“ONR will focus on educating [program officers] on how researchers are increasingly applying AI within their own scientific workflows. By leveraging AI for data informed portfolio analysis, a single [program officer] will dramatically enhance scientific productivity,” the strategy reads.
ONR said the goal is not to replace humans, but to increase ONR’s efforts exponentially by having large-scale networks of coordinated performers and agents to achieve asymmetric effects in problem solving and time.