DIU Prototyping

Abstract

DIU mission is to accelerate innovation in the commercially-focused technology sector to the warfighter. The 2018 National Defense Strategy asserts that we have returned to an era of inter-state strategic competition with Russia and China, heightening the sense of urgency with which the nation, and Department of Defense (DoD) in particular, must reform our acquisition policies and approach to sustaining military-technical superiority. Adversaries are challenging the U.S. across several dimensions. Most importantly, adversaries are at par or ahead of the U.S. in critical technology areas. Consistent with the FY 2020 Office of Management and Budget (OMB)/Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) research and development budget priorities, this new era of competition requires technological superiority to ensure ability to project power, maintain international norms and rule of law, and to serve as a credible deterrence. Notably, the critical technologies that forge military-technical superiority are increasingly dual-use and rapidly developed by the commercial sector. The U.S. DoD relies on innovation to maintain our nation's ability to deter, and if need be, prevail in conflict. The DIU increases the Department's access to leading-edge technologies and talent that reside in the commercial sector, with the ultimate goal of accelerating innovation into the hands of the warfighter. Working across the country, and in collaboration with allied international partners, DIU is developing new ways of doing business, growing our defense industrial base to include "non-traditional" companies that had previously not collaborated with the military, working with traditional vendors in novel ways to increase efficiency, and challenging innovators to share their knowledge and expertise in support of our nation's defense. The DIU Prototyping program will find and provide access to technology companies on behalf of DoD organizations. Additionally, DIU will execute projects to leverage commercial sector technology analogous to military application thereby increasing dual-use technology agility for the DoD. DIU Prototyping funds will facilitate the award of projects that can augment commercial technologies, existing government-owned capabilities or concepts for defense application. The National Security Innovation Capital (NSIC) will fund the commercialization and scaling dual-use, hardware-based technologies that are critical to the military. These technology areas are currently severely under-served by the private U.S. venture capital industry and often funded by strategic and persistent capital from China. In FY 2020, NSIC plans to attract private capital to leverage investments in about 8-12 selected projects that include batteries, drones, and quantum sensors.

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Document Details

Document Type
R2 Budgetary Justification
Publication Date
Oct 01, 2020
Source ID
0604341D8Z_4_0400_PB_2020
Change Summary Explanation
This is a new Program Element with two new Project Codes for DIU Prototyping/Project 843, $17.000 million, and National Security Innovation Capital (NSIC)/Project 844, $75.000 million programs. For Project 843, FY 2020 $17.000 million was transferred from WHS O&M 0901583D8W to RDT&E, DW PE 0604341D8Z/843 DIU Prototyping. Project 844 NSIC is a new program add. The overall increase of $92.000 million will fund prototype projects to leverage commercial sector technology analogous to military application thereby increasing dual-use technology agility for the DoD. The DIU Prototyping and NSIC focus areas are complementary and we envision that this integration will not only save funds in the future, but more importantly, grow the National Security Innovation Base (NSIB) by attracting new NSIB suppliers and improve the adoption of commercial technologies for the warfighter.
Service Agency Name
Office of the Secretary Of Defense

Entities

Organizations

  • Office of the Secretary of Defense

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Competition
  • Contracts
  • Cost Analysis
  • Costs
  • Department Of Defense
  • Deterrence
  • Governments
  • Leading Edges
  • Logistics
  • Military Acquisition
  • Military Applications
  • National Security
  • Product Development
  • Product Prototyping
  • Prototypes
  • Security

Readers

  • Defense Technology Research and Development.
  • Strategic Security Studies

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Quantum Computing

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