SIMI VALLEY, Calif. \u2014 To take advantage of the needed capabilities offered by technology startups, the military has to focus more specifically on a smaller number of companies to nurture, the Air Force\u2019s top officer said Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gen. CQ Brown, speaking here on a panel at the Reagan National Defense Forum, said that he visited Silicon Valley recently and met with multiple companies and venture capitalists. While he didn\u2019t identify specific firms, he said he \u201clearned a lot this past week on semiconductors and artificial intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve got to do is actually pick some winners,\u201d he said, pointing to rocket maker SpaceX as an example of an innovative company that has gained traction in the defense space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow we align and bring them forward \u2014 it\u2019s going to take some nurturing,\u201d Brown said of helping new tech companies move through the acquisition process. \u201cIt\u2019s like hand-walking a staff package through the Pentagon to make sure it gets done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once successful, Brown added, the military will have developed a \u201cpattern of doing things a little differently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commercial tech firms have become increasingly involved in the annual Reagan Forum, but the event\u2019s panelists generally represent large firms, such as Microsoft or Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indeed, speaking on the same panel, Karen Dahut, a former Booz Allen Hamilton executive recently tapped to run Google\u2019s public sector business, said this is the most fruitful time for innovative companies focused on aerospace and defense, given significant VC investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to get that capital working for us,\u201d she said, referring to the military. \u201cThose companies have not been able to get to a scaled program inside the department.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dahut advocated for picking several key technologies and giving them to troops for testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A group overseen by the deputy defense secretary is working aggressively to address the \u201cpain points\u201d faced by small companies who want to work with the Pentagon, according to Heidi Shyu, the under secretary of defense for research and engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said she presented to the deputy defense secretary a collection of issues she heard during meetings with small companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kathleen Hicks, the No. 2 civilian in the department, said, \u2018This is great. Let\u2019s go tackle this,\u2019\u201d and then brought in other Pentagon offices, including acquisition and sustainment, the chief information office and the chief digital and artificial intelligence office, among others, Shyu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, those offices are tackling a variety of issues, from security clearance issues to workforce challenges. Hicks is holding monthly meetings on their progress, Shyu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The goal is to \u201csimplify our contracting so we can award small companies much quicker, rather than taking many, many months,\u201d she added. \u201cWe absolutely are trying to tackle a lot of acquisition pain points.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve got to do is actually pick some winners,\u201d Gen. CQ Brown said at the Reagan National Defense Forum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":117137,"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":12,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","newsletters","home","middle-column"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"4":{"categories":["news","your-air-force","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","left-column","home","middle-column"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"},"9":{"categories":["industry","home"],"primary_category":"industry"}}},"categories":[160,12,36,126,30],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3409],"class_list":["post-63297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-industry","category-newsletters","category-reagan-defense-forum-smr","category-smr"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"H74NDU37YFFQ3MQHSAZJTS62XM","arc_canonical_url":"\/industry\/2022\/12\/04\/air-force-chief-military-must-pick-some-winners-among-startups\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n