WASHINGTON \u2014 Congress boosted the research and development budget of the Defense Innovation Unit by more than $20 million in its fiscal 2021 spending package sitting on the president\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawmakers allocated $66.9 million in research, development, test and evaluation funds for DIU, a Pentagon office that fields commercial technology from nontraditional contractors to department components. That amount is nearly $27.5 million more than DIU\u2019s request, and a huge increase over its 2020 $46.6 million RDT&E budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two space programs increased the DIU budget by $9.5 million, according to budget documents. The first increase was for DIU\u2019s multi-orbit platform, which received a $4.5 million boost. The commercial prototype project looks at \u201cin-space transportation and robotic platforms for on-orbit servicing, assembly and logistics,\u201d said Mike Madsen, director of DIU strategic engagement, in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DIU also got a $5 million boost for its small tactical imagery satellites program, a commercial prototype project that\u2019s assessing tactical geospatial intelligence capabilities for the war fighter, Madsen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DIU budget increase was largely driven by a $15 million increase in prototype funds over the budget request for \u201cdual-use technologies,\u201d products adapted from the commercial market to solve military problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The office also received a $3 million increase in prototype funds for a talent management pilot program, called Gig Eagle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGig Eagle is a new talent optimization app that will leverage commercial AI\/ML technology to identify and engage the right talent in real-time,\u201d Madsen said. \u201cThe initial rollout will unlock Reserve component talent for joint mission sets. We are currently working with a number of the services as potential partners.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Congress increased DIU’s R&D budget by $20 million over last year’s appropriations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3340],"class_list":["post-37478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"AGVOICYLFZCYDPC4YKYV3P4VIM","arc_canonical_url":"\/battlefield-tech\/it-networks\/2020\/12\/24\/space-programs-boost-defense-innovation-unit-budget\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n