On Aug. 18, the Trump administration released its National Security Science & Technology Strategy (NSSTS). A companion to the 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS), the document “describes how the United States will leverage its science and technology (S&T) enterprise to support and enable the objectives of the 2025 NSS.” This is the first White House document bearing the same title since the Clinton administration released its own NSSTS in 1995. Intervening administrations incorporated similar content into the NSS or standalone memos.
The Trump administration’s NSSTS sets out four pillars of scientific and technological development as related to national security. The first pillar, “Focusing Techno-Strategic Competition,” describes the importance of maintaining and advancing “U.S. technological advantage on the battlefield,” specifically highlighting three priority areas: undersea, space, and artificial intelligence and autonomy. The first section also emphasizes the need to use technology to “counter strategic threats to the homeland,” with reference to securing the borders and developing the Golden Dome, among other proposed initiatives.
The second pillar, “Building Technological Resilience,” focuses on developing preemptive resilience in technological systems critical to national security. The document clarifies that being “resilient to technology transformation…cannot mean halting technological progress.” Instead, the Trump administration emphasizes leading on transformative emerging technology areas and keeping foreign adversaries “out of critical technology systems and supply chains.” The third pillar, “Accelerate the Pace of Innovation,” continues the emphasis on U.S. advantage in emerging technologies by outlining ways to accelerate research and development such as removing regulatory barriers, incentivizing research, and reforming the defense acquisition process.
The final pillar, “Protect National Security S&T,” specifically calls out China as a threat and proposes to protect critical science and technology through increased scrutiny of foreign investments, companies, and personnel involved in the research and development process.
You can read the NSSTS here or below:
