In what fields is the government 10-15 years ahead of consumer tech? That seems like a totally absurd claim.
Technology moves a very long way in 15 years. The only markets this might be true is for specialized military equipment where there is no consumer market other than aftermarket military goods.
>In what fields is the government 10-15 years ahead of consumer tech?
Antenna design.
My employer is building specialized antennas for the military that, once the research, design, and infrastructure has been paid for and put into place by the department of defense, will filter down into enterprise applications and then finally consumer goods.
Dynamic metasurfaces, dynamic polarizations, and dynamic multiband rx/tx for antennas are all coming, eventually, to smartphones. Just got to get them a little smaller and a lot cheaper, but that's coming.
All paid for by AFRL, DARPA, and NRL grants.
I don't work in the field. I would never tempt insanity by working in RF. I just reap the ESPP benefits from my employer raking in the cash by licensing out its tech to various OEMs.
The electronically steered phased array antennas used by SpaceX for Starlink dishes (a consumer product only recently) was already used by the U.S. military 20 years ago. Although 20 years ago such a thing cost seven digits.
Technology moves a very long way in 15 years. The only markets this might be true is for specialized military equipment where there is no consumer market other than aftermarket military goods.