{"id":66047,"date":"2024-01-05T14:24:20","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T14:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2024\/01\/05\/the-dod-is-getting-its-innovation-act-together-but-more-can-be-done\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:01:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:01:52","slug":"the-dod-is-getting-its-innovation-act-together-but-more-can-be-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/opinion\/2024\/01\/05\/the-dod-is-getting-its-innovation-act-together-but-more-can-be-done\/","title":{"rendered":"The DoD is getting its innovation act together, but more can be done"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Despite the clear and present danger of threats from China and elsewhere, there\u2019s no agreement on what types of adversaries we\u2019ll face; how we\u2019ll fight, organize and train; and what weapons or systems we\u2019ll need for future fights. Instead, developing a new doctrine to deal with these new issues is fraught with disagreements, differing objectives and incumbents who defend the status quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, change in military doctrine is coming. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks is navigating the tightrope of competing interests to make it happen \u2014 hopefully in time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several theories of how innovation in military doctrine and new operational concepts occur. Some argue new doctrine emerges when civilians intervene to assist military \u201cmavericks,\u201d e.g., the Goldwater-Nichols Act. Or a military service can generate innovation internally when senior military officers recognize the doctrinal and operational implications of new capabilities, e.g., Rickover and the Nuclear Navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But today, innovation in doctrine and concepts is driven by four major external upheavals that simultaneously threaten our military and economic advantage:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. China delivering multiple asymmetric offset strategies.<\/li>
  2. China fielding naval, space and air assets in unprecedented numbers.<\/li>
  3. The proven value of a massive number of attritable uncrewed systems on the Ukrainian battlefield.<\/li>
  4. Rapid technological change in artificial intelligence, autonomy, cyber, space, biotechnology, semiconductors, hypersonics, etc., with many driven by commercial companies in the U.S. and China.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The U.S. Defense Department\u2019s traditional sources of innovation are no longer sufficient by themselves to keep pace. The speed, depth and breadth of these disruptive changes happen faster than the responsiveness and agility of our current acquisition systems and defense-industrial base. However, in the decade since these external threats emerged, the DoD\u2019s doctrine, organization, culture, process and tolerance for risk mostly operated as though nothing substantial needed to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The result is that the DoD has world-class people and organizations for a world that no longer exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It isn\u2019t that the DoD doesn\u2019t know how to innovate on the battlefield. In Iraq and Afghanistan, innovative, crisis-driven organizations appeared, such as the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency and the Army\u2019s Rapid Equipping Force. And armed services have bypassed their own bureaucracy by creating rapid capabilities offices. Even today, the Security Assistance Group-Ukraine rapidly delivers weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Unfortunately, these efforts are siloed and ephemeral, disappearing when the immediate crisis is over; they rarely make permanent change at the DoD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But in the past year, several signs of meaningful change show the DoD is serious about changing how it operates and radically overhauling its doctrine, concepts and weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    First, the Defense Innovation Unit<\/a> was elevated to report to the defense secretary. Previously hobbled with a $35 million budget and buried inside the research and engineering organization, its budget and reporting structure were signs of how little the DoD viewed the importance of commercial innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now, with DIU rescued from obscurity, its new director drives the Deputy\u2019s Innovation Working Group, which oversees defense efforts to rapidly field high-tech capabilities to address urgent operational problems. DIU also put staff in the Navy and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to discover actual urgent needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Furthermore, the House Appropriations Committee signaled the importance of DIU with a proposed fiscal 2024 budget of $1 billion to fund these efforts. And the Navy has signaled, through the creation of the Disruptive Capabilities Office, that it intends to fully participate with DIU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In addition, Deputy Defense Secretary Hicks unveiled the Replicator initiative, meant to deploy thousands of attritable autonomous systems within the next 18 to 24 months. The initiative is the first test of the steering group\u2019s ability to deliver autonomous systems to warfighters at speed and scale while breaking down organizational barriers. DIU will work with new companies to address anti-access\/area denial problems for these drones.<\/p>\n\n\n\t