Government Should Fund More Money for Technology in Military - Research Proposal Example

Lecturer: Government should fund more money for technology research in military because that will make civilian life better and easier Introduction The investments in defense science and technology allow the US to counter military threats as well as overcome the advantages that may be sought by its adversaries. It further increases the military options that are available to policymakers, along with options other than warfare in the pursuit of objectives that promote stability and prevention of conflict. Science and technology assists in countering special threats like terrorism that cannot be addressed using conventional war-fighting forces, and they strengthen the intelligence capacity needed to assess the dangers faced by the nation. The military on the US further depends of science and technology to develop advanced military systems more affordable in their whole life cycle. Additionally, it has also directed a lot of effort towards promotion of human rights in various areas of the planet (Laurienti 2). Through maintain close dialogues with war-fighters, the defense technology community continues to be sensitive to the needs of users while at the same time sensitizing the users about the possibilities offered by the technology in regards to response to evolving threats. My main claim is that the government should direct more funds into military technology research so that the lives of civilians can be enhanced. With this in mind, this research seeks to find out whether the government should direct more funds towards the development of military technology with the aim of making life better for civilians. The proposed literature review will consider various aspects of technology developed by the military, while the proposal will entail the approach that will be used to collect the information. Statement of Problem Advancements in the US military have gone through numerous drastic changes through the years in order to reach its prime in its present accomplishments (Barnes and Jentsch 5). Through the years, technology used by the military has continued to progress as almost a century ago, the US was merely learning to utilize machine guns and about sixty years ago, it was learning how to utilize tanks as well as artillery in its operations. Presently, the US military is the leading war machine in all attributes of warfare such as weaponry, computer technology as well as biological and chemical warfare with more advancement still in the pipeline. The military forces use lasers, have training to fight and survive chemical warfare, can send reconnaissance and other forms of communication to space in order to support their operations and have exceptional mobility. Information technologies have resulted in changes in the battlefield to allow better performance of the present platforms, weaponry, people as well as sensors (Shamma 430). Presently, electronics along with software provide additional capabilities to most of the complicated systems with information technology being the foundation for continual improvements as far as communication is concerned as well collecting, assessment and distribution of intelligence, control of platforms, processing of data from sensors and the performance of humans. The nation’s troops rely on precise and well-timed information in the battlefield since the capacity to get, incorporate, assess and deliver information efficiently and quickly being critical to the gaining advantage in the battlefield. The question remains whether these technologies that have given the military a competitive advantage in its operation can be beneficial to the rest of the people in the day to day activities. There are arguments by politicians over federal budgets each time the Congress reconvenes at the beginning of the year; however, the money spent by the government each year, which may differ from the budget, demonstrates the amount of funding received by departments and agencies. The expenditures directed at research and development predominantly support the work of science in the nation. The comparative proportions have been objectively constant in the recent years. When funding is compared between the agencies, departments and particular organizations in the departments, the interesting pattern that emerges is that defense gets more funding compared to all other recipients. The nations spending on fossil fuel can be equated to its spending on renewable energies and efficiency Objectives The main objective will be reviewing the available literature concerning the technologies that are used by the military and how they can make life for the rest of the population better. Further the review will seek to achieve three clear goals: Find out whether the government should provide more funding to research and development in the military with the aim of making civilian life better; Define and explain the technologies developed and used by the military in its operations; and Determine if these technologies improve the lives of the rest of the population. To begin with, the military organizations, which are able to embrace and develop new technologies, have an obvious advantage in the modern war environment (Gongora and Von Riekhoff 31). This has been certainly true at the time when the modern warfare was considered attrition warfare and remains the case presently when the US has a policy that seeks to avoid attrition warfare similar to the one seen during the two world wars. After the world wars, militaries took the next step and fostered the development of technology, as they were aware from experience that development is an essential aspect (Altmann 147). This research will consider the developments of military technology and the manner in which they can make the lives of the civilians better. Technology remains the main driver of innovation and progress in the society while determining the rate of growth in a society. Investments in technology support advances in all the areas of the intelligence process for militaries ranging from data collection to its dissemination. This research will consider how the technologies used by the militaries were developed and the manner in which they came to be used by the civilian population. In the current conflicts that the US is engaged in, there are concerns about overstretching the military that have led to considerable investments in devices that allow a smaller number troops to take part in more activities. Previously, soldiers had to remain on guard duty to watch the perimeters of their bases using binoculars, but presently, most of them depend on thermal imaging that has an ability to generate clear pictures of areas even twenty kilometers away in complete darkness and even through smoke and fog. Presently, these thermal imaging technologies are available to the public for use in boats and cars. Technology, sensors, models as well as simulations have become high priority science and technology initiatives as far as the department of defense is concerned. Technology has the potential to enhance considerably all the aspects of future military capacities, and modeling and simulation make major contributions to training, the design of weapons, acquisition of management and readiness. Cumulatively, these technologies can considerably decrease combat loss of lives and equipment while making the lives of civilians even better. This research will culminate in developing a better understanding of the links between the technologies developed by the military and how they can make the lives of the ordinary citizens easier. Plan of Action This part presents the plan for achieving the objectives of the study with the literature in various articles and books concerning the technologies developed by the military should be a source of substantial information for the completion of the literature review. The first objective of this research will be explain the criteria that will be used to determine whether the technologies developed by the military make the lives of ordinary citizens better. For instance, will the developed technology apply seamlessly to the needs of the civilian populations and the level of functionality that can be expected from them when the civilians put it into use. In order to achieve this objective, I will depend on a number of books and articles including Jurgen Altmann’s Critical Analysis of New Weapons Technologies and, Jerry Laurienti’s The U.S. Military and Human Rights Promotion among other sources of literature associated with this topic. The research will also provide the history of development of military technologies and how they have been applied for civilian uses through time. Management Plan This part presents the schedule, costs as well as qualifications required for the completion of this proposed research. The research will culminate in a formal report an in order to reach this objective a schedule that will take two weeks will be followed. Since literature on this is already available, most of the time will be spent on sifting through the literature to identify the key results and the presentation of the results to the audience. Since most of the sources can be accessed through the university library system, there will be no appreciable costs linked to developing this review. However, there will be minor costs that will arise from photocopying articles, printing of the final report as well as binding it, but they will not exceed thirty dollars. Works cited Altmann, J. (2009). Critical analysis of new weapons technologies. Peace Review, 21(2), 144-154. Barnes, Michael, and Florian Jentsch. Human-Robot Interactions In Future Military Operations. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2009. Print. Gongora, Thierry, and Harald Von Riekhoff. Toward A Revolution In Military Affairs?. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000. Print. Laurienti, Jerry M. The U.S. Military And Human Rights Promotion. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Security International, 2007. Print. Shamma, Jeff S. Cooperative Control Of Distributed Multi-Agent Systems. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons, 2008. Print. Read More