Innovation Agility (NavalX)
Abstract
The Innovation Agility portfolio responds to opportunities for rapid and disruptive technologies to meet urgent warfighter needs, and addresses technology and sailor performance issues identified during experiments, exercises, and demonstrations. NavalX Agility explores high-risk, disruptive, and innovative technologies and concepts that advance naval warfighter's capabilities. The program has substantial programmatic flexibility and is not limited to any set of technology areas. Ultimately, the goal is to provide a dramatic improvement for the warfighter at a rapid pace. Some of these technologies may become part of a follow-on technology development, may end up in the hands of the warfighter for Fleet/ Force experimentation, or may culminate in a significant Fleet/Force exercise that demonstrates capability that transitions into the Acquisition Program of Record (POR). NavalX builds an agile, collaborative, and connected Naval network to pursue high-risk, disruptive, and innovative technologies and concepts that advance naval warfighter's capabilities. Innovation Agility includes the digital environments needed to develop technologies rapidly and efficiently. Innovation Agility digital environments include automated test and re-test functionality to develop, demonstrate, and evaluate small business technologies and disruptive capabilities, evaluate cybersecurity, and provide a low barrier of entry for small businesses and new startups to integrate with Naval systems and missions. These digital environments provide for Model-Based Systems Engineering to do evaluation of technologies in the context of Naval missions and priority kill chains and support integration and interoperability with Naval systems unable to be tested/integrated traditionally at physical test sites. Innovation Agility encompasses efforts that transform the Navy's innovation culture. Innovation Agility focuses on training and scaling of non-traditional innovation methods with programs like Hacking for Defense (H4D), the Center for Adaptive Warfighting (CAW), Workforce Agility (WFA) courses, and university outreach, course development and partnerships across the country, including relationships and investments with the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and direct connections to Naval Tech Bridge activities. H4D is taught in 60 university curricula, has worked over 750 defense related problems since 2016, and has a fall 2023 enrollment of over 550 student, CAW has more than 6,000 graduates and 300 trainers from the Navy, Marine Corps, and civilian workforce. WFA has facilitated workshops across the DoN for over 650 customers and over 120 hours of facilitated innovation sessions. Innovation Agility culture efforts seek to train the DoN workforce and build innovation expertise from within.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2025
- Source ID
- 55a0c15a95e863d29a22617ff8bee27b