Chapter 03
Maximize the Benefits of Biotechnology and Defense
Chapter 03
introduction
Biology represents the next paradigm shift in how wars can be fought and won. At the dawn of the twentieth century, the United States fell behind in airpower despite being the birthplace of aviation because it failed to see how airplanes changed the nature of war. Once the U.S. military started recognizing airplanes as central to all military doctrine, it reorganized itself to unlock the technology’s potential. For the military, biology could prove equally transformative. Just as flight forever changed force projection, surveillance, and logistics, so could biotechnology.
Biology’s ability to grow and adapt could revolutionize logistics. Just as aviation shortened resupply times and expanded forces’ operational reach, emerging biotechnology could enable the on-demand production of essential resources such as fuel, food, and medicine, reducing the military’s reliance on vulnerable supply chains. Such advances could simplify logistics, extend the operational range of forward units, and enhance battlefield survivability.
Biotechnology’s impact on surveillance could be similarly transformative. Biological sensors could detect pathogens or chemical threats in real time, creating a dynamic and resilient system for battlefield awareness. As a result, warfighters would be able to make faster, more informed decisions in complex environments.
Biotechnology also promises new advantages in stealth and mobility. Dynamic biological camouflage, for instance, could shield warfighters from thermal detection, while wearable biosensors could adjust mission parameters based on real-time physiological data.196
Taken together, these advances demand a fundamental rethinking of how biology supports sustained, agile military operations, revolutionizing what it means to defend the United States, including building for, nourishing, and healing forces in the field. Like aviation before it, biotechnology requires a mindset shift—from viewing the technology as a collection of separate tools to understanding it as a comprehensive framework that should transform the military’s approach to logistics, surveillance, and operations.
Several Department of Defense (DOD) entities are already working to advance biotechnology. This includes the important work carried out by the DOD’s Office of Strategic Capital (which works to attract and scale investment in biotechnologies), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Biological Technology Office ( which simulates the warfighter’s biological systems, optimizes combat casualty care, and improves logistics through distributed manufacturing), and the DOD’s Tri-Service Biotechnology for a Resilient Supply Chain (T-BRSC) (which is scaling biomanufactured products so that the DOD will have alternative supply chains for critical products).197
The Commission identified several key steps that the United States must take to build on this work and realize the full military potential of biotechnology to give the nation vital lead time against its adversaries. These include defining DOD principles for ethical use of biotechnology, fielding biotechnology at scale across the U.S. military, and preventing adversaries, especially China, from using or developing U.S. biotechnology in ways that threaten the United States and its allies.