That’s because such investments—for example, in microelectronics, additive manufacturing, and materials development—are key to other stated Trump administration priorities, such as competing with China and rebuilding U.S. manufacturing capability, defense officials said on the sidelines of the Reagan National Security Forum here.
Pentagon officials and leaders from both parties have long complained about the way the Defense Department buys things. They say expensive requirement-driven programs that are subject to congressional oversight result in cost overruns and weapons that can’t be modified easily—and may be obsolete by the time conflict rises. By comparison, commercial tech companies produce products quickly using rapid iteration and scaling.
It’s one reason why former Defense Secretary Ash Carter set up the Defense Innovation Unit. DIU connects the Pentagon to commercial tech companies in a variety of ways.
Doug Beck, who now heads DIU, said Saturday that the department is still largely stuck in out-moded ways of building things.
“Massive competition, also from around the world, forces innovation [and] forces investment in that innovation, because if you don't do that, you lose. And in our more traditional approach to defense procurement, we really have neither of those two things. … Instead, we’ve got something that looks a lot more like the traditional five-year plans from the old Soviet system, which the Chinese have actually spent a whole lot of time thems ..
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