What are Critical and Emerging Technologies?
An Excerpt from the February 2024 FAST TRACK ACTION SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRITICAL AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
Overview
Critical and emerging technologies (CETs) are a subset of advanced technologies that are potentially significant to U.S. national security. The 2022 National Security Strategy defines three national security objectives: protect the security of the American people, expand economic prosperity and opportunity, and realize and defend democratic values. This list identifies CETs with the potential to further these objectives and builds on the October 2020 National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies, which contains an initial list of priority CETs. This updated document expands upon that original CET list by identifying subfields for each CET with a focus, where possible, on core technologies rather than on technology application areas or performance characteristics. In focusing on core technologies, the CET list does not highlight important crosscutting objectives that underpin the security and efficacy of CETs, such as the responsible development and deployment of cyber-secure and resilient technologies.
Although not a strategy itself, this updated CET list will inform a forthcoming strategy on U.S. technological competitiveness and national security. This list may also inform future efforts to prioritize across CETs and their component subfields; however, this list should not be interpreted as a priority list for either policy development or funding. Instead, this list should be used as a resource to: inform future efforts that promote U.S. technological leadership; cooperate with allies and partners to advance and maintain shared technological advantages; develop, design, govern, and use CETs that yield tangible benefits for society and are aligned with democratic values; and develop U.S. Government measures that respond to threats against U.S. security. Departments and agencies may consult this CET list when developing, for example, initiatives to research and develop technologies that support national security missions, compete for international talent, and protect sensitive technology from misappropriation and misuse.
Critical and Emerging Technologies List
The following critical and emerging technology areas are of particular importance to the national security of the United States:
• Advanced Computing
• Advanced Engineering Materials
• Advanced Gas Turbine Engine Technologies
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Advanced and Networked Sensing and Signature Management
• Artificial Intelligence
• Biotechnologies
• Clean Energy Generation and Storage
• Data Privacy, Data Security, and Cybersecurity Technologies
• Directed Energy
• Highly Automated, Autonomous, and Uncrewed Systems (UxS), and Robotics
• Human-Machine Interfaces
• Hypersonics
• Integrated Communication and Networking Technologies
• Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Technologies
• Quantum Information and Enabling Technologies
• Semiconductors and Microelectronics
• Space Technologies and Systems