Sharon-Weinberger-In.. - American Antigravity

current concerns about energy. And, of course, wouldn’t we all love to have the old industrial
labs, like GE? But that, I’m afraid, is a thing of the past.
AAG: Another issue is the pervasive problem of "quick-fix" thinking: pushing marginally
useful or generally inelegant solutions as short-term solutions that fail to address long-term
problems? Maybe this comes out of corporate America's narrow-focus on quarterly-profits, but
I'm wondering if the problem of fixing the symptoms rather than the cause isn't a real issue in
terms of the defense industry as well?
Weinberger: I don’t want to over-generalize, but I think we see this problem in how the
Pentagon is addressing the threat of improvised explosive devices. Understandably, they want
quick fixes, because it’s an immediate problem. But they also need to be funding basic science
and technology in the hopes that we can come across breakthrough technologies that would help
with this problem.
AAG: Is there a point where our technological
edge in a specific area becomes apparent enough
that we should stop investing money in an already
mature technology? For instance, if we can hit a
thumbtack with a guided missile launched from an
aircraft 5 miles away, is it worth spending millions
a year to continue enhancing the technology?
Weinberger: If money were free, I’d say,
heck, let’s invest in all of it. Personally, I’d like to
study why salt shakers can stand on their edge in a
pile of salt—pondering this oddity has kept me
awake through many a corporate dinner. Seriously,
though, in a world of choices we must prioritize.
However, in the case of maturing technology, I
actually do believe in upgrades. After all, part of
“technological surprise” can be when our
competitors make advances in existing technology
that we didn’t expect. So, it depends on the
circumstance. I am more critical of the massive
expenditures in something like, say, a new fighter
aircraft, if we see that the superiority, relative to the
financial costs, may not be warranted.
DTI Goes To Sea: A focus on emerging
naval stealth in the Nov/Dec 2005 issue.
AAG: In a case like that, wouldn't it be better to push an initiative to reduce the cost of these
mature technologies rather than enhance their effectiveness to the point of absurdity?
Weinberger: I might actually disagree here slightly with this premise. Effectiveness is
important---if you’re going to spend billions of dollars to deploy a missile defense system, then I
would much rather that it is 95 percent effective than 75 percent effective. The question is
whether we really need the capability in the first place, relative to the base investment. As I said
in the question above, we need to be critical about the initial investments in expensive
technology.
AAG: Would vaporware weapons-projects have any tertiary value in terms of psychological
warfare? Personally, I've always wondered if maybe some of the government non-answers about
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