Third Offset Strategy

Extracted Attributes

• Preceded by

  First Offset Strategy (1950s), Second Offset Strategy (1970s)

• Primary Goal

  Deterrence and technological superiority

• Budget (FYDP)

  $18 billion over five years

• Alternative Name

  Defense Innovation Initiative

• Key Technologies

  Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous Weapons, Human-Machine Collaboration, Learning Machines

• Target Adversaries

  China, Russia, Iran, North Korea

• Budget (FY2017 R&D)

  $3.6 billion

Timeline

• First Offset Strategy launched as the 'New Look' strategy by the Eisenhower administration to counter Soviet conventional forces with nuclear deterrence. (Source: U.S. Army: The Third Offset Strategy)

  1950-01-01

• Second Offset Strategy launched, focusing on precision-guided munitions, stealth, and ISR systems. (Source: CSBA: Securing The Third Offset Strategy)

  1970-01-01

• Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announces the Defense Innovation Initiative, also known as the Third Offset Strategy. (Source: GMF Policy Brief: The Impossible Transatlantic Discussion)

  2014-11-01

• Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work delivers a major speech on the Third Offset Strategy and its implications for partners and allies. (Source: U.S. Army: The Third Offset Strategy)

  2015-01-28

• The Pentagon requests $18 billion over the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) for Third Offset research and development. (Source: GMF Policy Brief: The Impossible Transatlantic Discussion)

  2016-02-09

• The proposed fiscal year 2017 budget includes $3.6 billion dedicated to Third Offset Strategy pursuits. (Source: CSBA: Securing The Third Offset Strategy)

  2017-01-01

• The 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS) embraces the fundamental tenets and technological advances of the Third Offset Strategy. (Source: RAND Report: A History of the Third Offset)

  2018-01-01

Offset strategy

An offset is some means of asymetrically compensating for a disadvantage, particularly in a military competition. Rather than match an opponent in an unfavorable competition, changing the competition to more favorable footing enables the application of strengths to a problem that is otherwise either unwinnable or winnable only at unacceptable cost. An offset strategy consequently seeks to deliberately change an unattractive competition to one more advantageous for the implementer. In this way, an offset strategy is a type of competitive strategy that seeks to maintain advantage over potential adversaries over long periods of time while preserving peace where possible.

Web Search Results

• [PDF] The Third Offset Strategy - U.S. Army

  Third Offset Strategy. The fundamental goal of an offset strategy is deterrence and should deterrence fail, possess a military strength augmented with technological superiority to destroy an adversary in any domain (land, air, maritime, cyberspace, and space). Throughout history, the Department of Defense conducted two offset strategies, adapting technological advances to warfighters and leading to a fundamental change in how war is conducted and the tools used in its conduct. The first offset was launched in the 1950s as a “New Look” strategy by the Eisenhower administration. Back then, the U.S. and its allies in Europe faced a significant quantitative disadvantage against Soviet conventional forces and its satellite states: 92 Allied divisions against 175 Soviet divisions. President [...] Offset strategy, a part of the Future Years Defense Program (FYPD), consists of at least five priority 3 Robert Work, “The Third U.S. Offset Strategy and its Implications for Partners and Allies,” As Delivered by Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work, January 28, 2015. Available at: areas for research and development programs, with a budget request of $18B for the next five years. According to Robert Work, Deputy Secretary of Defense, top technological priorities described in the Third Offset include: 4  Learning machines: leveraging Artificial Intelligence and autonomy into an offset advantage; i.e., instantly responding against cyber-attacks, electronic attacks or attacks against space architecture or missiles;  Human-machine collaboration: using advanced computers and visualization [...] has grown more competitive and volatile. The Army 2 Robert Martinage, Toward a New Offset Strategy: Exploiting U.S. Long-Term Advantages to Restore U.S. must divest itself from a counterinsurgency and stability operations and prepare for the harsh realities of the operational environment associated with LSGCO. Future conflicts will influence the character of war and operational tempo when confronting the 4+1 challenges (Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and violent extremist organizations). The Army will need to synchronize capabilities quickly and decisively across domains, geographic boundaries, functions, and authorities to maintain freedom of maneuver inside an adversary’s A2/AD region. These capabilities will result from the Third Offset Strategy. The fundamental goal of an offset

• [PDF] The Impossible Transatlantic Discussion on the U.S. Third Offset ...

  | Foreign and Security Policy Program | Policy Brief 1 G|M|F October 2016 2016 | No. 41 Launched in November 2014, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)’s “Defense Innovation Initiative,” also called “Third Offset Strategy,” is meant to address the erosion of U.S. technological superiority and to “identify and invest in innovative ways to sustain and advance U.S. military dominance for the 21st century.”1 The Third Offset Strategy, under the control of Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work, has since then been portrayed as an ambitious long-term program, aiming to increase “the competitive advan-tage of our American forces and our allies over the coming decades.”2 The commitment of the Pentagon to this initiative has been stressed numerous times, and the 2017 defense budget request [...] The Third Offset Strategy is ultimately about U.S. deterrence worldwide, with the explicit intention to deal with the challenges posed by a great variety of actors. [...] defense.gov/Portals/1/Documents/pubs/OSD013411-14.pdf 2 Robert Work, “The Third U.S. Offset Strategy and its Implications for Partners and Allies,” speech delivered at the Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C., January 28, 2015, the-third-us-offset-strategy-and-its-implications-for-partners-and-allies 3 Aaron Mehta, “Defense department budget: $18B over FYDP for Third Offset,” Defense News, February 9, 2016, policy-budget/budget/2016/02/09/third-offset-fy17-budget-pentagon-bud-get/80072048/ In Brief: In late 2014, the U.S. Department of Defense launched a defense initiative, often called the “Third Offset Strategy,” to ensure that Washington maintains technological superiority and “military dominance for the 21st century.” If the Europeans are not to be also offset by the U.S. military’s next

• Securing The Third Offset Strategy: Priorities For Next US Secretary Of Defense | CSBA

  In November 2014, then–Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced a new Defense Innovation Initiative, which included the Third Offset Strategy. The initiative seeks to maintain U.S. military superiority over capable adversaries through the development of novel capabilities and concepts. Secretary Hagel modeled his approach on the First Offset Strategy of the 1950s, in which President Dwight D. Eisenhower countered the Soviet Union’s conventional numerical superiority through the buildup of America’s nuclear deterrent, and on the Second Offset Strategy of the 1970s, in which Secretary of Defense Harold Brown shepherded the development of precision-guided munitions, stealth, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems to counter the numerical superiority and improving [...] The following section identifies military capabilities that should receive top priority for new investment as the core capabilities the Third Offset Strategy. The section aims for a finite set of concise statements of need for new capabilities to accomplish operational tasks. If employed with new concepts of operation, they have the potential to offset adversary advantages and increase the likelihood of U.S. success in the defense of Taiwan and other possible contingencies. [...] Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has built on Hagel’s vision of the Third Offset Strategy, and the proposed fiscal year 2017 budget is the first major public manifestation of the strategy: approximately $3.6 billion in research and development funding dedicated to Third Offset Strategy pursuits.1 As explained by Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work, the budget seeks to conduct numerous small bets on advanced capability research and demonstrations, and to work with Congress and the Services to craft new operational concepts so that the next administration can determine “what are the key bets we’re going to make.”2

• [PDF] Space and the Third Offset - Center for Global Security Research

  Defense Agency that supports the services and combatant commanders, or 4) a space combatant command with separate acquisition authorities like Special Operations Command. 8 For further information, see: • The Third U.S. Offset Strategy and its Implications for Partners and Allies (Jan 2015) Conclusion Though participants widely agreed on major U.S. strategic advantages and potential weaknesses, remaining topics for discussion include how to leverage these advantages to advance the Third Offset strategy and how to fully integrate space into this strategy. Significant areas for focus include the development of more effective and streamlined operational and organizational components, integrated strategic concepts, the empowerment of allies and management of alliances, and how the DoD and the [...] organizational instantiation of the Third Offset in space. Success for the U.S. in the space domain will be critically dependent on reducing the vulnerability of critical satellite constellations. Victory in a regional conflict against a space-capable adversary will require assured access to U.S. space systems, especially when potential adversaries are trying to deny us this access. In this session, participants also discussed the parallels and differences between space and cyber at more length, particularly in the context of potential roles they will play in the Third Offset strategy. Ultimately, they agreed that the Third Offset strategy is not yet fully conceptualized or realized; thus, the role of space in this strategy is still evolving. Participants also came to agree that space is [...] by LLNL’s Center for Global Security Research (CGSR). This report summarizes the workshop’s panels and subsequent discussions. Attendees and panelists came from diverse backgrounds in academia, government, industry, the national laboratories, and think tanks. Their expertise was diverse, to include the technological, operational, and policy aspects of space, as well as regional and country-level knowledge. The group also included several representatives from allied nations. The primary goal of last year’s seminar was to deepen our collective thinking about the role of space in integrated strategic deterrence, particularly in the context of the U.S. Defense Department’s Third Offset Strategy.1 This evolving strategy is driving the need for a new strategic playbook to meet U.S. national

• A History of the Third Offset, 2014–2018 | RAND

  A key finding in this history is that the Third Offset was less a military strategy for offsetting what were perceived to be the recently acquired military advantages of China and Russia and more a mechanism for intellectual change within DoD at a time when changes in thinking about future warfare were needed. As a result, this history focuses on institutional efforts to effect change within DoD and the key defense leaders who strove to bring that change to fruition. These efforts were successful in that the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS) embraced many of the fundamental tenets of technological advances and organizational changes developed by the Third Offset. In that sense, this history provides an example of how to effect organizational and process changes in large military [...] RAND ## Site-wide navigation ### Topics #### Trending #### Topics ### Research Divisions RAND's divisions conduct research on a uniquely broad front for clients around the globe. #### U.S. research divisions #### International research divisions The authors document the history of the Third Offset, a U.S. strategy that focused on the potential of technology to offset Chinese and Russian military advances and that shaped the 2018 National Defense Strategy. The authors describe efforts to effect change within the U.S. Department of Defense and interview key defense leaders who did so, providing an example of how to bring about organizational change in large military institutions. # A History of the Third Offset, 2014–2018 [...] Cover: A History of the Third Offset, 2014–2018 The Third Offset emerged at a time of transition within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). In 2014, the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq seemed to be winding down. At the same time, it had become clear to U.S. defense planners that for the previous two decades, while the U.S. military was concentrated on Afghanistan and Iraq, China and Russia had significantly increased their warfighting capabilities. The aim of the Third Offset, as envisioned by former Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work, one of its key creators and advocates, was to draw on U.S. advanced technologies to offset China's and Russia's technological advances. This report documents the history of the Third Offset from 2014 to 2018.