There is a clear gulf between the capabilities of modern synchrotrons to deliver high photon fluxes, and the capabilities of detectors to measure the resulting photon, electron or ion signals. While a huge investment has been made in storage ring technology, there has not to date been a commensurate investment in detector systems. With appropriate detector technology, gains in data rates could be 3 to 4 orders of magnitude in some cases. The US community working in detector technology is under-funded and fragmented and works without the long term funding commitment required for development of the most advanced detector systems. It is becoming apparent that the US is falling behind its international competitors in provision of state-of-the-art detector technology for cutting edge synchrotron radiation based experiments.