{"id":26859,"date":"2017-09-08T12:50:56","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T12:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2017\/09\/08\/heres-the-technology-in-which-dods-innovation-hubs-will-be-investing\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:56:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:56:26","slug":"heres-the-technology-in-which-dods-innovation-hubs-will-be-investing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/intel-geoint\/sensors\/2017\/09\/08\/heres-the-technology-in-which-dods-innovation-hubs-will-be-investing\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s the technology in which DoD\u2019s innovation hubs will be investing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Biotechnology? Artificial intelligence? Precision weapons?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For industry looking to align its research and development money to the needs of the U.S. Department of Defense, figuring out what Pentagon leadership is interested in is vital intelligence. And at the Sept. 6 Defense News Conference, leaders from four key Pentagon innovation centers laid out what their groups would be focusing on in the next few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experts \u2014 Fred Kennedy, acting director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency\u2019s Tactical Technology Office; Sean Singleton, director of business development and marketing for the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, or DIUx; Col. Joe Capobianco, chief of staff with the Army\u2019s Rapid Capabilities Office; and Stacey Dixon, deputy director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity \u2014 offered a range of options for industry to focus on, while giving hints about where their individual organizations are in terms of technology maturation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here for more coverage from the Defense News Conference<\/a><\/b>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dixon identified two key areas \u2014 artificial intelligence, and what she called \u201csynthetic biology,\u201d or biological innovations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For IARPA, the intelligence community\u2019s answer to DARPA, the need for AI is obvious. The amount of data coming in from intelligence sources is often compared to a tsunami, and the ability to rapidly sort through that and flag analysts with relevant pieces of information is vital for the future. But Dixon pointed out reliance on such systems comes with potential risks, as adversarial nations will seek to manipulate data on which it knows the U.S. is working.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Stacey Dixon, deputy director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, sits down with Defense News to discuss the damaging impacts of a continuing resolution, how her organization works with the Pentagon and the technologies on which she is most focused.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

The challenge with synthetic biology, Dixon said, is that \u201ctechnically someone\u2019s accident could have a huge impact on the world, and it\u2019s a lot harder to defend against that.\u201d In other words, it\u2019s not just nations that can impact this realm, but individuals using publicly available laboratory technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That doesn\u2019t mean other nations aren\u2019t attempting to play with the human genome, and Dixon acknowledged that there needs to be \u201cmore of a concerted investment\u201d from the U.S. in learning about this technology in order to avoid falling behind potential near-peer competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur country is wonderful, but we do put all sorts of constraints on the research that\u2019s allowed here. That\u2019s probably for good reasons, for moral reasons,\u201d she said. \u201cBut there are other countries that don\u2019t have those constraints. We have to understand what is capable, what they\u2019re doing. We\u2019re seeing a lot of investment internationally including in countries that we might consider adversaries, so we want to make sure that we\u2019re watching it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those two focus areas were reiterated by DIUx\u2019s Singleton, who noted his office is working with IARPA on some machine-learning projects. In addition, DIUx \u2014 created to be an outreach arm for the Pentagon to the commercial technology sector \u2014 is doing \u201ca lot\u201d of work in the space realm, Singleton said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you look at folks like [Blue Origin head Jeff Bezos] and Richard Branson and Paul Allen and other folks, taking advantage of some of the investments they themselves are doing and bringing it back beyond the wall to us to where we could go ahead and capitalize off of that, those are the things we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singleton added that DIUx is working with the Army\u2019s Rapid Capabilities Office on countermeasures for unmanned systems at the direction of Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, while Capobianco emphasized that the RCO is looking at new technologies for electronic warfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capobianco said that focus is being driven by the fact that \u201cwe know we have a capability gap based on occurrences in Eastern Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t