Secretary of Defense (SecDef) James Mattis released his plan to pursue innovative ways to sustain and advance U.S. military superiority and improve business operations throughout the Department of Defense (DOD) to Congress almost a year ago. It was entitled “Restructuring the Department of Defense Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Organization and Chief Management Officer Organization”. The SecDef’s plan breaks down the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (AT&L) into two smaller organizations — the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USDR&E) and the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (USDA&S).
This innovative plan is a huge step in the right direction, and the document highlights the pain points businesses face when attempting to innovate for and sell to DOD. This new way ahead uses a creative approach to new technology research and acquisition and allows for the important work being done by acquisitions professionals to be guided by the USDA&S.
Government leaders must understand and invest manpower and resources into the venture capitalist (VC) ecosystem to leverage these super nodes of the private innovation industry.
To remain on the cutting edge, DOD needs to co-opt venture capitalists and the profit motive. VC firms depend upon countless hours of research and "due diligence" to differentiate vaporware from game-changing tech advances. These advances are capable of producing ten-times (10X) the changes resulting in a massive return on investment.
Current initiatives such as “Hackathons” and “Shark Tank” events, although educational, must be reinvented to become product-driven platforms. These initiatives must be condensed and better-orchestrated to align with those conducted behind the curtain of the various tech giants located in Silicon Valley. Stanford’s “Hacking for Defense” is one such program that demonstrates promise.
DOD should pursue dual-use technologies. Dual-use technologies are those applicable to commercial and government use with minimal changes. Private VC firms and large consumer-focused technology companies largely are unexposed to the government marketplace. The DOD’s slow sales cycle traditionally has created a detrimental environment. Although largely unused, relationships quickly can be improved through unclassified partnerships and programs such as former-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus’s “Navy Tours with Industry Program.”
Other nations, such as Israel, have found great success in engaging in “fund and capture” technology programs. As outlined in “Start-Up Nation,” the “fund and capture” of both domestic and foreign-sourced technologies has become a fundamental tool in the improvement of national security. DOD must be in the sprint to new technology against near-peer competitors. If the United States remains hobbled by bureaucratic constraints, it soon will become a nation unable to compete against near-peer opponents. Last year, Russia and China are rumored to have invested more than $2 billion dollars through proxy VC and Angel firms located in Silicon Valley to fund and capture new technology for state purposes. In addition, these near-peer competitors realize the U.S. government will not invest in a company owned entirely or partly by Russian or Chinese investors.
The race has begun!
► Embrace and scale new technology. Compartmentalization, silos, and stovepipes that slow the innovation process detract from obtaining and testing new technology to ascertain its viability. The distribution and scaling of new technologies slowly and quietly in the name of national security creates barriers detrimental to the growth of technology ecosystems. Inevitably, a system designed to preserve national security has the opposite effect over time and has a net negative impact on national security.
► Create unclassified avenues of approach for private industry firms in an attempt to motivate technology investors to see the government as a partner and customer. The profit motive is strong, and the government should leverage its power when partnering with VC firms seeking a 10X return on investment. The government and DOD must partner with industry to capitalize on its ground-breaking tech in order to reach the national security innovation goals of fielding winning technology on an ever-changing battlefield.
► Understand technology. DOD needs to study and replicate the best practices encoded by law and regulation permitting the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) Tier 1 Special Missions Units to design, develop, and validate solutions in-house by end-users. To accomplish this, the procurement and ruggedization of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions must be made readily available for implementation by U.S. conventional forces.
► Reach out to reserve, guard, and veteran networks that have infiltrated the technology ecosystems. The means to identify, employ, and empower these skilled reservists, guardsmen, and veterans who can act as a bridge between the two cultures is imperative. These patriots represent an innovative avenue to rapidly build relationships between government and industry outside of the military industrial complex. To do this efficiently, DOD should create clearly understood policy around intellectual property protection and ethical guidelines where potential conflicts of interest might arise.
The recommendations outlined here are designed to help bridge the civil-military technology divide. To move things along, DOD should take the following actions:
► Provide clearly defined moral and ethical guidelines for those men and women in uniform, either part time or full time, that might act as a touch point within industry. Technology players in industry and current and future entrepreneurs in uniform must be given left and right limitations to understand how to legally and ethically develop and build strategic partnerships within the DOD. The goal is to create a culture of innovation which fosters relationships between our military leaders and the leaders in industry and academia.
► Develop guidelines that provide intellectual property protection from the U.S. government for any member of the DOD, armed forces, and industry working in any capacity to bring emerging technology to the forefront.
Technology is a source of power and democratization. Future technologies will continue to flatten global power hierarchies, consequently forcing nation-states to compete against asymmetric actors like ISIS, near-peer states, and criminal hackers operating from the dark web.
U.S. political and military leaders have been slow to accept these facts and the threats they pose to national security. A shift in mindset and execution is required politically and militarily to counter them. The government must partner with industry and co-opt the profit motive that drives Silicon Valley. Only when DOD and the whole of government can parallel the valley’s speed and access to capital will the true power of the world’s greatest technology ecosystem become the pillar of national security it can and should be.
Commander Supko is a two-time technology startup founder. His most recent venture, Patriot List, is a safe and secure hyperlocal peer-to-peer market for members of the military, veterans, and their families. He has served as a Navy SEAL officer for 18 years, to include three combat tours in the Middle East, and currently is the commanding officer for West Coast Navy Reserve SEALS at SEAL Team 17.
Editor's Note: Part I: Industry vs Government Tech Innovation — Winter Is Coming! was published on 20 January 2018 and Part II: The Great Divide—A Cultural Shift Is Needed was published on 28 February 2018.