{"id":32991,"date":"2020-02-05T22:06:48","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T22:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/02\/05\/defense-innovation-experts-to-congress-put-money-where-pentagons-mouth-is\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:31:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:31:00","slug":"defense-innovation-experts-to-congress-put-money-where-pentagons-mouth-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/congress\/2020\/02\/05\/defense-innovation-experts-to-congress-put-money-where-pentagons-mouth-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense innovation experts to Congress: Put money where Pentagon\u2019s mouth is"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Just how much of a problem is Congress’s overall lack of tech literacy? Here’s what our roundtable discussion had to say.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 Defense innovation<\/a> experts told U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday that if they truly want the Department of Defense to embrace the leap-ahead technologies needed to compete, Congress must use its funding power to make major players out of small, disruptive tech firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leaders of the U.S. House\u2019s Future of Defense Task Force<\/a>, which hosted the testimony, said they are willing to challenge the tough politics of displacing older systems that have built-in constituencies with the technologies troops will need. The panel\u2019s co-chairs Reps. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and Jim Banks, R-Ind., are expected to issue recommendations to that end in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe understand that makes some of our colleagues nervous, but that\u2019s the big picture of what we\u2019re trying to accomplish \u2015 publishing a report that will be taken seriously by our colleagues that addresses the type of disruption that\u2019s needed at the Pentagon to foster innovation,\u201d Banks told reporters after the hearing. \u201cIf it\u2019s a tit for tat, then we have to address legacy systems, sacred cows that can be compromised for the greater good.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The task force, launched in October, focuses on maintaining the Pentagon\u2019s technological edge against Russia and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here for the Defense News special report, Culture Clash, on the Pentagon\u2019s tech outreach efforts.<\/b><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hearing Wednesday, titled \u201cSupercharging the Innovation Base,\u201d hosted Aerospace Industries Association CEO Eric Fanning, whose members are largely established prime contractors and major subcontractors; Raj Shah, the former chief of DoD\u2019s Defense Innovation Unit, now with Arceo.ai<\/a>; and Chris Brose<\/a>, a former staff director for the Senate Armed Services Committee, now head of strategy for tech startup Anduril Industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The hearing came as the Pentagon is working to absorb Congress\u2019 latest round of acquisitions reforms and eyeing advances in artificial intelligence, hypersonic weapons, biotechnology and next-generation networking, known as 5G. Senior Pentagon leaders are themselves fundamentally rethinking DoD\u2019s modernization priorities, but the proof will be in the president\u2019s FY21 budget submission next week and future budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s very difficult when the public pronouncements and the follow through on the acquisition side are at odds,\u201d Shah said. \u201cThere has been no shortage of senior leaders who come to [Silicon] Valley and say, \u2018We want this innovation, we love it.\u2019 But then when it comes time to fund relatively modest contract sizes, they say, \u2018Look, we love AI but we can\u2019t find $20 million for this project. The advantage DoD has is scale, and it should use it to maximize its value.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked by Rep. Paul Mitchell, R-Mich., about the Army\u2019s decision to scrap its procurement strategy for the optionally-manned fighting vehicle<\/a> \u2015 a move that fueled questions about whether the program requirements were unrealistic \u2015 Brose said DoD too often treats requirements as \u201ca one-way street.\u201d DoD asks industry to build exactly what it wants, he said, instead of being open to being surprised by what innovative firms can do.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along these lines, Brose argued the military needs to inject competition into programs, but also devote resources toward competitive experiments, driven by outcome-oriented metrics, that can in turn drive innovative operational concepts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWinning a program of record can\u2019t be like getting tenure at a university, where you have it and forever it\u2019s yours. Every year or so you have to find a way for a new company to come in and take a swing at the incumbent … telling the incumbent, \u2018You\u2019ll have another chance in a year or two, bring your A-game,\u2019\u201d Brose said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brose and Shah said the Pentagon ought to be investing in what it deems the most promising products and firms instead of spreading around small seed investments that rarely result in a recurring revenue stream for a tech company. Brose also recommended that in helping innovative firms displace \u201cestablished but less capable programs of record,\u201d the government should, \u201cbuy more of what that innovation base is building right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Concept art from the Air Force Research Lab showing a drone swarm that the service could potentially use in the future. (AFRL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The government\u2019s decision-making will drive private-sector investors toward winning companies that need to scale up to meet demand, Shah said. As it stands, DoD\u2019s slow processes create a \u201cvalley of death\u201d<\/a> from experimentation to production that denies small and mid-tier companies the revenue they need to thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBe willing to make big bets on early indicators of success. There are lots of these trial programs … Pick two or three that are promising. Bet big on them on watch them thrive,\u201d Shah said, adding later: \u201cVenture capitalists are in the business of maximizing return<\/a>. You don\u2019t need to engage them, you don\u2019t even need to call them. If you make bets on companies that you think will be decisive for national security, they will follow\u2015at least the good ones. That is their job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond products, outreach-focused organizations and activities like the Defense Innovation Unit, the Defense Digital Service and Air Force Pitch Day need heftier funding as well, according to Shah. He recommended Congress also fund U.S. military installations in each of the country\u2019s leading innovation centers, including San Francisco and Boston, \u201cto build personal, community relationships between technologists and uniformed members.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where should Congress cut and reinvest? Brose argued against investing in robust command and control networks that pipe data from the battlefield to far-away processing centers. Because troops will likely face network-denied environments, they would be better off with distributed, semi-autonomous battlefield systems capable of processing vast amounts of data onsite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe model we\u2019ve built our military on is fundamentally going to have to change,\u201d Brose said. \u201cIt\u2019s been centralized so information at the edge is brought back to the center, generally in highly manual processes, to make sense of it and push it out. I think we\u2019re going to have to do this in a distributed way, not least because our adversaries have figured out how we fight and they are building weapons to cripple and shatter our ability to command and control our forces.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked what programs ought to be displaced by these innovative technologies, Fanning acknowledged that when those sorts of decisions get made, \u201cthe antibodies come out.\u201d He argued that industry, Congress and DoD ought to be making decisions in collaboration with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we think, and the existence of this panel makes me think we do, we\u2019re going to make some pivots, we need to find a way to support the department when it\u2019s trying to make some of the hard choices,\u201d Fanning said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the Department of Defense to embrace the leap-ahead technologies needed to compete, Congress must use its funding power to make major players out of small, disruptive tech 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