Strengthening the Defense Innovation Ecosystem

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.