The Army Science and Technology Master Plan is approved by the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Staff of the Army. It is the S&T roadmap for achieving AV 2010 and AAN. This plan is provided to government, industry, and academia to convey the Army’s S&T vision, objectives, priorities, and corresponding investment strategy. This document is an explicit, resource–constrained Department of Army guide to funding priorities and the S&T program as a whole. "Resource–constrained" means the program activities discussed in this document are funded in the FY98 Army Appropriation and the FY99 President’s Budget (FY99–03). The schedules and projected technical accomplishments reflect this level of funding.

It should also be noted that laboratory and center directors have sufficient flexibility, resources, and authority to initiate projects, explore promising avenues of research and development, and exploit opportunities as they are identified, beyond those discussed in this document. Budget reductions, however, continue to erode this flexibility so essential to technical discovery and support to the acquisition and field commanders. The Army’s S&T strategy and plan include support to the DTAP, JCS Future Warfighting Capabilities, S&T Reliance, and cooperation with U.S. allies to pursue common goals.

Technological superiority is essential if a smaller Army is to be able to engage successfully in a wide variety of future conflicts with minimal casualties. With continued support, the Army S&T program will ensure affordable technological superiority, avoid technological surprise, and provide revolutionary warfighting capabilities for the AAN (Figure I–39 and Table I–7).