The Challenge
Our nation recognizes that we must drive advances in science, technology, and innovation to assure that the nation’s military and homeland defense remains without peer and able to respond effectively to new challenges enabled by the globalization of science and technology.
Our military and national intelligence communities have determined that one of the greatest worldwide threats to our security in the 21st century are from asymmetric warfare. These threats are disproportionately serious to megacities with populations greater than 10 million, areas otherwise known as dense urban environments.
Dense urban environments pose unique challenges for homeland security and related operations in all domains: land, sea, air, space, and cyber. Vertical terrain, subterranean warfare, infrastructure vulnerabilities and energy issues further complicate this issue.
To preserve our way of life and ensure security of these critical centers, we must enhance our ability to anticipate, preemptively detect, and successfully react to threats with minimum collateral damage. These capabilities not only require the accelerated development of new technologies and applications, but also require testing in a real-world megacity environment that allows federal, state, and local authorities to prepare for, prevent, deny, disrupt, and respond to these threats with appropriate action.