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Materials Slipping on the U.S. Critical Technologies List For the third time in six years, the United States government has issued a national report card on technologies critical to the security and prosperity of that nation. As before, the United States still maintains a leading or comparable technological position relative to Europe and Japan in all the 27 critical areas, the National Critical Technologies Report states. However, the report's authors also note that a technological lead does not necessarily translate into dominance of world markets. Also, the authors expressed concern about the static nature, and in some cases, the dwindling gap between the United States and other countries. They call for continued investment in technology development—something being hotly debated by U.S. lawmakers these days. "This report documents the very tenuous lead we maintain," said John H. Gibbons, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which issued the report. Yet at this crucial time, "the new congressional leadership proposes to gut the very core of our strategy to preserve American preeminence in these critical areas." Materials is one of seven major categories of technology. Yet materials research and development often provide the basis for advances in the other six categories: energy, environmental quality, information and communication, living systems, manufacturing, and transportation. Key enabling technologies emerge from materials efforts and often those technologies prove important to multiple national goals, both civil and military, according to the report. The overall marks for materials are good: The United States maintains a slight or substantial lead in both materials and structures in comparison to Japan and Europe. But the panel authoring the report warn that between 1990 and 1994, the lead over Japan shrank in both materials and structures, which refers to aircraft. This trend is worrisome, the authors said. Furthermore, a look at specific types of materials did reveal weaknesses. "Indeed, the international position of the United States in materials is mixed," the report said. In no materials category is the United States improving its status. It continues to lag and lose ground relative to Japan in ceramics and superconductors and to slip in photonic and electronic materials and highway and infrastructure materials relative to both Japan and Europe. The U.S. lead in alloy technology is also diminishing.
Only in stealth materials and composites did U.S. technologies maintain a status ahead of Japan relative to Europe. Overall, the United States stayed the same in ceramics, composites, superconductors, and high energy density and stealth materials. The U.S. strength in composites stems primarily from development of polymer matrix composites. The 27 technologies considered were selected based on the Joint Chiefs' of Staff list of "Top 5" Future Joint Warfighting Capabilities and recommendations of the National Science and Technology Council Committee on National Security and in the 1994
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