Strengthening the Defense Innovation Ecosystem

Abstract

Technological superiority is a key element of the U.S. military's strength and advantage over its competitors. While the government played a key role in sponsoring science and technology research during the Cold War, in recent years, technological innovation has been driven by the commercial market. Today, as China is aggressively modernizing and growing its military, the technological advantage the United States holds over its near-peer rivals has narrowed. Department of Defense (DoD) direct investment in basic research and development remains critically important but is not sufficient to retain the U.S. technological advantage. Our research design included five tasks: Task 1. Understand how defense innovation organizations seek to accelerate development and adoption of commercial technologies. Task 2. Develop a commercial technology pipeline model. Task 3. Examine whether and how the defense innovation ecosystem is effectively accelerating the identification, development, and adoption of commercial technologies. Task 4. Develop alternative approaches to strengthen the DoD commercial technology pipeline for innovative technologies. Task 5. Evaluate alternative approaches and make recommendations to strengthen the DoD commercial technology pipeline for innovative technologies.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2022
Accession Number
AD1195044

Entities

People

  • Brodi Kotila
  • Devon Hill
  • Elizabeth M. Bartels
  • Jeffrey A. Drezner
  • Jonathan P. Wong
  • Michael Simpson
  • Quentin E. Hodgson
  • Shane Manuel
  • Shreya S. Huilgol

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Business Administration
  • Computer Programming
  • Data Analysis
  • Employment
  • Information Systems
  • Intellectual Property
  • Military Applications
  • Military Research
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Space Systems
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Unmanned Systems
  • Virtual Reality
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Economics
  • Military Science and Technology Research and Modernization.