Defense Science Board
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Defense Science Board (DSB) was a committee of civilian experts appointed to advise the U.S. Department of Defense on scientific and technical matters. Established in 1956 on the second Hoover Commission's recommendation, it was merged with the Defense Innovation Board in 2026 to create the Science, Technology, and Innovation Board.
Charter
The Board's charter said:
The Board shall provide the Secretary of Defense, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and, as requested, other Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Principal Staff Assistants, the Secretaries of the Military Departments, the Commanders of the Combatant Commands, independent advice and recommendations on scientific, technical, manufacturing, acquisition process, and other matters of special interest to the Department of Defense. The Board is not established to advise on individual DoD procurements, but instead shall be concerned with the pressing and complex technology problems facing the Department of Defense in such areas as research, engineering, and manufacturing, and will ensure the identification of new technologies and new applications of technology in those areas to strengthen national security. No matter shall be assigned to the Board for its consideration that would require any Board Member to participate personally and substantially in the conduct of any specific procurement or place him or her in the position of acting as a "procurement officials," as that term is defined pursuant to law. The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics or designated representative shall be authorized to act upon the advice and recommendations of the Board.
The DSB conducted multiple simultaneous studies each year on topics selected from requests made by the Department of Defense or Congressional leaders. One or more were "summer studies" held in August, when the panels met as a group, usually in Irvine, California. Senior DoD personnel often joined the final day of a stufy to be briefed on its findings. All DSB studies produced a written report, many of which were released to the public.
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This entry incorporates text from “Defense Science Board” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.