Pentagon eyes start-ups to keep up with China's military tech: WSJ

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Wall Street Journal
26 Mar 2023 21:04

A report by The Wall Street Journal sheds light on tech deficiencies the US is suffering from, which prompts the need for new solutions that meet Pentagon's requirements.

The Pentagon is seen in this aerial photo from Air Force One in Washington, D.C., US, March 29, 2018. (Reuters)

The Pentagon is seeking to attract Silicon Valley start-ups for its defense contracts in an attempt to keep up with China's military technology development, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The report specified that the US Defense Department plans to attract start-ups in order to finance and devise new types of weapons and "more-nimble" suppliers.

This comes at a time when the US defense industry has become heavily dependent on "a few large companies" that receive state funding for conducting research. According to the newspaper, this situation is causing concern and raising fears, thus, prompting the need to look for new solutions that meet Pentagon's requirements.

The US defense and aerospace industry is currently receiving almost $6 billion from private capital annually. It used to receive only $1 billion in 2017, as PitchBook Data Inc. showed.

In the meantime, China is more actively recruiting private companies as a means to develop new types of weapons, in contrast to the United States.

Beijing has invested more than $1 trillion in the tech industry, the newspaper reported, citing Steve Blank, co-founder of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University.

China's growing tech capabilities have become a cause of continuous concern for the US.

"There are things on the horizon though that we need to be really giving attention to, funding research and development and making progress on… the hypersonic threat, especially China," Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn said on Friday.

Lamborn warned that China is planning to produce hundreds or thousands of weapons and shed light on Biden's announcement back on March 3 when he said that he would set up an industrial system that will enable the efficient production of hypersonic weapons.

"We do not have a viable offensive capability with hypersonics," Lamborn said, emphasizing that the US does not have defense capabilities against China's hypersonic weapons and calling on allocating funds to research the development of new weapons.