The Executive Office of the President, via the National Science and Technology Council, has released an updated list of critical and emerging technologies that are potentially significant to U.S. national security. This list updates and revises the critical technologies list identified in the October 2020 report, “National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies” and an updated report in February 2022. See SmarTrade Updates of October 19, 2020 and February 15, 2022. For the purposes of the national strategy, critical and emerging technologies (CET) are defined as “those technologies that have been identified and assessed by the National Security Council (NSC) to be critical, or to potentially become critical, to the United States’ national security advantage, including military, intelligence, and economic advantages.”
The 2024 update identifies the following CET areas:
- Advanced Computing
- Advanced Engineering Materials
- Advanced Gas Turbine Engine Technologies
- Advanced and Networked Sensing and Signature Management
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Artificial Intelligence
- Biotechnologies
- Clean Energy Generation and Storage
- Data Privacy, Data Security, and Cybersecurity Technologies
- Directed Energy
- Highly Automated, Autonomous, and Uncrewed Systems, and Robotics
- Human-Machine Interfaces
- Hypersonics
- Integrated Communication and Networking Technologies
- Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Technologies
- Quantum Information and Enabling Technologies
- Semiconductors and Microelectronics
- Space Technologies and Systems
This updated document expands upon the original 2020 CET list and the February 2022 update. Three new categories include (i) clean energy generation and storage; (ii) data privacy, data security, and cybersecurity technologies; and, (iii) positioning, navigation, and timing technologies. The list continues to identify subfields under each sector that describe the intended scope in more detail and, where possible, focuses on core technologies rather than on technology application areas or performance characteristics.