Technology development is advancing at a rapidly growing pace. It can be expected that it will continue to grow and indeed, that this growth will accelerate on a world-wide basis. Friendly nations and potential adversaries alike must be expected to have greater access to advanced technology. Our nation and our Navy is faced with a rapidly changing and potentially dangerous world situation that demands we pursue a robust and innovative approach towards our technology developnemt programs. To maintain technological advantage, a methodology must be developed which permits a timely assessment of current and emerging technologies in order to determine, in an atmosphere of reduced budgets, which to support. This project involves the identification of categories and types of strategic technology data and the means by which it can be acquired, the development of the requirements for and an evaluation of existing data bases to store collected data in a structure which permits analyses, and the development of a Strategic Technology Analysis and Decision Methodology. The Phase I tasks are designed to identify in detail all factors which influence the technology decision process and to demonstrate the methodology using a prototype technology.
