Smart manufacturing has become a high priority focus area for the U.S. Intelligence Community on the cusp of what is being coined as an industrial intelligence revolution.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence listed “materials and manufacturing” as a tier 1 tech domain in its S&T Investment Landscape, which outlines the IC’s science and technology needs and aims to advance the United States’ interests through anticipating future needs.
“Advanced materials and manufacturing processes serve as a foundation for a variety of applications, to include automation, computation, software, sensing, networking, and emerging capabilities in such areas as nanotechnology, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, and biology,” the S&T Investment Landscape states.
Smart factories leverage advanced technology and digital capabilities – including data analytics, predictive maintenance, artificial intelligence and automation – to optimize the manufacturing process, which in turn reduces supply chain risks and produces higher yields.
The ODNI’s 2022 Annual Threat Assessment included smart manufacturing as an emerging technology that is improving human capabilities and shaping the technology landscape of the future.
The assessment noted that there is an “increasing convergence” of disparate fields due to rising global competition and shortening timelines for the development of next-generation technologies.
Additionally, the document highlighted that these factors are leading to increasingly blurred boundaries between the commercial and military realms, “ particularly in fields with broad impact across societies and economies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnologies, robotics and automation, and smart materials and manufacturing.”
Learn more about the Intelligence Community’s technology priorities during the Second Annual IC Acquisition and Technology Innovation Summit, scheduled for May 4 and hosted by GovCon Wire Events.
Stacey Dixon, ODNI’s principal deputy director of national intelligence and three-time Wash100 Award winner, has been invited to keynote the summit, which will bring together the top government and industry leaders within the IC to discuss strategies, priorities, technologies and procurement in today’s evolving intelligence landscape.
