U.S. Slippage Feared in Defense Technology : Official Says Funding for Advanced Research Is ‘First to Go’ When Pentagon Budgets Are Cut

America is in danger of losing its technological supremacy on the battlefield because of inadequate funding for Pentagon research programs, a senior Defense Department official said Thursday.

“When (Pentagon) budgets are cut, the first thing to go is advanced technology research,” said Raymond S. Colladay, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. “It ought to be the other way around. The situation is getting worse.”

Colladay made his remarks Thursday at the Winter Convention on Aerospace and Electronics Systems. It was the final day of the 3-day annual defense industry conference in Costa Mesa, attended by about 300 top defense industry officials getting a glimpse of the Pentagon’s plans for tomorrow’s weapons systems.

Big-Ticket Systems Favored

With the exception of Thursday’s session, Wincon meetings were classified and closed to the public.

Colladay, former director of NASA’s aeronautics and space research and technology programs, has headed DARPA for the past year. As the Pentagon’s main research arm, DARPA’s main task is maintaining U.S. technological superiority over the Soviet Union and other potential adversaries.

Colladay’s view that the U.S. military may be losing its technological edge was shared by another speaker, Anthony R. Battista, who retired as a staff member of the House Armed Services Committee last year and now works as a defense consultant.

Battista said the armed services have traditionally favored big-ticket weapons systems while pushing research into new technologies “down the priority list.” As a result, the massive military buildup undertaken by former President Reagan did little to enhance the nation’s defense technology.

When Reagan came into office the defense industry was “euphoric,” Battista said. “Everyone thought they were going to get everything back that President Carter had cut. . . . They were not selective; they were greedy.

“We were throwing money down the rat hole in a duplication of programs” among the military services, Battista said. “Technology was de-emphasized. The money all went into platforms and large weapons systems.”

Under the Pentagon’s proposal, the DARPA budget would swell to $1.2 billion in fiscal 1990, from $785 million this year. But Colladay said that is still not enough money to keep the nation on the cutting edge of technology. He emphasized that Pentagon research programs do not serve solely military purposes, but sometimes have commercial uses as well.

High-Resolution TV

An example would be DARPA’s recent decision to finance the development of an advanced high-resolution video display, a move also aimed at reviving the American television manufacturing industry. The project is designed to develop high-resolution display screens for use on combat aircraft, battle simulators and other military uses.

The program will enlist the help of American electronics and semiconductor manufacturers to develop the next generation of television equipment, known as high-definition television, or HDTV, which is supposed to bring movielike clarity to home TV sets. The Japanese now dominate TV manufacturing and are known to be far ahead of competitors in development of HDTV.

Other DARPA research projects include lightweight satellites, super-maneuverable aircraft, superconductors, high-speed computing and sophisticated sensors that would automatically recognize targets. The agency is also funding research on “neural networks”--artificial intelligence computers that recognize and compare patterns and then solve problems in ways similar to that of the human brain.