A group of senators, after receiving a classified briefing, got spooked that maybe the Pentagon wasn’t taking seriously enough the notion that other countries are starting to tailgate the U.S. military on technology. So now they’re ordering a study “to examine the potential specific challenges to U.S. military technological superiority within the next 10 years, and the specific planned responses by the Department of Defense (DOD) to meet these challenges,” Roll Call reports.  

At the same time, the department’s basic research funding is in danger of dropping.  

The Senate Armed Services Committee report on its annual defense policy bill, released last week, notes that it contains a provision asking the Defense Science Board or another independent group to conduct the study.