Dr. Robert Latiff, Major General (Ret), spoke on how the U.S. has historically led the world in the development of advanced technologies, both for commercial purposes and for military applications. Nuclear weapons, stealth, submarines, satellites, the computer, and the internet are but just a few of the long list of things which have defined the last century of technology in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, other nations look to U.S. successes and follow our lead, copying the technologies, often improving on them, and occasionally deploying them against us. So naturally the U.S. government and its suppliers find it necessary to continue to invest heavily in research and development to stay one step ahead of our competitors both economically and militarily. Read more here.