The DOD is looking to the next-generation wireless tech to further build on the improved speeds, latency and capacity it gained with 5G and support the U.S. military’s use of new capabilities at the edge.

With that, Macklin said the Pentagon is beginning to experiment with 6G in a variety of ways.

“6G will introduce some new features that some of the community are aware of, but I don’t think all fully appreciate the implications of that,” Macklin said at Elastic’s Public Sector Summit, produced by FedScoop.

As an example, the FutureG Office has been experimenting with a concept called Integrated Sensing and Communication, which uses radio frequencies of all objects — including those not actively transmitting data — connected to a network to create situational awareness of the surrounding environment, according to Macklin.

“So as these RF signals are going out there, moving from radio towers connecting to our devices, they transmit our voice data … they transmit data as our devices connect to the internet. But as those RF signals are bouncing around the environment, they can also paint a picture of what’s going on in that environment,” he explained.

One way in which the U.S. military could apply this emerging concept is to improve awareness and management of drones in a given environment, Macklin said.

“We’ve got a lot of drone delivery businesses that will expand their operations, right? So where we understand the standards are currently heading with that is drone swarm control, drone deconfliction, and then also drone detection,” he said.

Macklin continued: “If you’ve been tracking what’s been going on in the news recently, when you add a national security perspective to that, we sure have had a lot of incidents where folks who are weaponizing commercial drones. So I think your imagination can run pretty fast with why that is important, why we need to lead innovation in that area.”

Late last year, the Defense Department expressed frustration when it couldn’t figure out who was responsible for flying drones near military installations in New Jersey. But a new capability like Integrated Sensing and Communication supported by 6G might aid in addressing such incidents with threatening drones, Macklin implied.

And, because of existing investments in 5G wireless technology, fielding 6G shouldn’t come with a huge price tag in terms of supporting infrastructure.

A capability like Integrated Sensing and Communication “will be integrated into existing digital infrastructure. You don’t need to add a lot of new equipment. You can provide new capabilities out of existing infrastructure,” Macklin said.

As the Pentagon continues its efforts to explore and adopt next-generation wireless technologies like 6G, Macklin said it’s participating in a “whole-of-government approach” that allows modularity and interoperability called Open Radio Access Network, or Open RAN. He called it “our big play to drive innovation within the U.S. and with other stakeholders.”

In November, the department awarded Hughes Network Systems a $6.5 million contract to develop an Open RAN prototype at Fort Bliss, Texas, to test and evaluate advanced wireless capabilities for military applications. The capability was expected to offer “increased functionality and scalability of 5G wireless networks, incorporation of artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) into DoD systems, and greater flexibility in acquiring or replacing the software and hardware used in military equipment,” the department stated in a press release.

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Current and former leaders from the three nations broadly discussed how and why they’re pursuing this and other joint collaboration on unmanned aerial systems and other emerging combat technologies at the ComDef 2023 conference, which took place nearby in Arlington, Virginia.

“The geo-strategic circumstances in the Indo-Pacific are changing more rapidly than we anticipated even a few years ago. And that has meant that we have had to do more together — more with the U.S. as our major military ally — then we’ll have other partnerships in the region, particularly with countries like Japan. And so, what’s happening is as China continues to rise, the region is adjusting to that. It’s adjusting to the economic power of China and it’s adjusting to the military power of China,” Australia’s former Ambassador to the U.S. Arthur Sinodinos said at the event. 

Each of the nations share unique and expanding military partnerships with one another, which are largely based on and influenced by their common interests in the Indo-Pacific region. For instance, four prototype, medium and large U.S. Navy drones recently transited the Pacific Ocean from their homeport in California to 7th Fleet headquarters in Japan — integrating with other platforms and Japan-based units, along the way — as part of the Integrated Battle Problem 23.2 exercise.

In a new fact sheet detailing many elements of America’s and Australia’s envisioned “next-generation of innovation and partnership,” officials confirmed that the allies “welcomed additional efforts to increase trilateral cooperation with Japan, including Australia’s future participation for the first time in the YAMA SAKURA exercise in 2023 and KEEN EDGE exercise in 2024, both in Japan.” They also noted that they’re now considering other new trilateral activities with the Japanese military specifically associated with unmanned aerial systems.

“Our cooperation will enhance interoperability and accelerate technology transfer in the rapidly emerging field of collaborative combat aircraft and autonomy,” officials wrote.

They also further spotlighted the U.S. and Australia’s commitment to jointly develop and operate collaborative combat aircraft, also known as CCA drones.

Over the next five years, the U.S. Air Force plans to spend more than $6 billion on its CCA initiatives as it pursues robotic wingmen for next-gen fighter jets and other manned aircraft. And it’s working with the Navy to ensure there’s connection and a common architecture with the sea service’s CCA efforts. Australia is also paving the way for its own robo-jets, and informing America’s quest.

In response to questions from DefenseScoop on Wednesday, White House and Pentagon officials did not provide further information about what the deepened, trilateral cooperation on drones might entail — or if it would all unfold via the U.S. military’s existing CCA projects.

“Although we have no additional details or information to provide at this time, we look forward to future trilateral and bilateral cooperation with our Australian and Japanese allies — and continuing to ensure the development of critical technologies and capabilities that support our shared security objectives,” Defense Department spokesperson Jeff Jurgensen told DefenseScoop.

During his keynote at ComDef 2023, U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante told the audience to expect further international discussions and agreements promoting technology acceleration and integration between the United States and its partners in the months to come.

“You’re going to see more of those — whether it’s with Japan, whether it’s with Australia or with European countries — you’re going to see more co-production, co-development and co-sustainment,” he said. 

In a separate keynote at the event, Kyosuke Matsumoto — director general for the Department of Technology Strategy, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency that’s under Japan’s Ministry of Defense — also noted that his nation aims to advance cooperation with the United States regarding research and development for drones. A focus is particularly being placed on coordinating communications, data flows and sensors. 

“All systems need to be interoperable,” he said.

Updated on Oct. 26, 2023 at 2:10 PM: This story has been updated to include comments from Defense Department spokesperson Jeff Jurgensen.

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“Supporting both the Air Force and Space Force missions at AFRL is an incredible honor,” Bonnell said in a release Thursday announcing her new roles. “I believe we are entering an ‘Exponential Age,’ where speed, adaptability, and curiosity will be the key tenets to maintain adversarial advantage. I’m excited to work with the amazing scientists, researchers, business and mission leaders at AFRL to leverage technology to rapidly augment our national security.”

As the laboratory’s first-ever CIO, Bonnell will be responsible for developing and executing an information technology strategy for AFRL. Her focus will be “catalyzing the discovery, development, and integration of warfighting technologies for air, space, and cyberspace forces via digital capabilities, IT infrastructure and technological innovation across the lab’s operations and culture,” according to her bio on the organization’s website.

She will also lead AFRL’s new Digital Capabilities Directorate — a virtual “labverse” aiming to streamline the laboratory’s modernization efforts and more quickly transition adoption-ready tech to warfighters. Stood up in March, the organization is looking to leverage techniques used by commercial companies to improve AFRL’s research and business operations.

Before joining AFRL, Bonnell was Google Public Sector’s emerging tech “evangelist,” according to the release. At Google, she helped the Defense Department and other federal agencies adopt new capabilities such as cloud, artificial intelligence and zero-trust cybersecurity strategies.

Prior to Google, she was the chief innovation officer at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), where she co-founded the agency’s innovation hub known as the Global Development Lab. She also has experience working in areas of armed conflict with the United Nations.

“[Bonnell] joins AFRL at a critical moment in time, as AFRL accelerates the generation and transition of cutting-edge technologies for our warfighters,” AFRL Commander Brig. Gen. Scott Cain said in a statement. “With her visionary leadership and deep understanding of technology and how it can be harnessed to achieve mission success, she is poised to strengthen the culture of innovation and lead AFRL into a new era of digital capability.”

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A provision in the mark for the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act by the Cyber, Information Technologies and Innovation subcommittee would rename the position of undersecretary of defense for research and engineering — a post currently held by Heidi Shyu — and change it to “undersecretary of defense for technology integration and innovation.”

In addition to serving as the Pentagon’s CTO, the undersecretary would also be responsible for “establishing policies on, and supervising, all elements of the Department relating to the identification of commercial technology for potential use by the Department and integration of such technology into the armed forces (and the Department),” the legislation states.

Both lawmakers and officials at the Pentagon have long admitted to difficulties in bringing new and innovative commercial tech into the department’s acquisition system. Often, promising capabilities fail to move past prototyping and into production due to the Pentagon’s bureaucratic and slow-moving processes — a phenomenon known as the “valley of death.”

In response, initiatives have been stood up across the DOD to help bridge gaps between the commercial world and the Pentagon.

Under the proposed legislation, the undersecretary of defense for technology integration and innovation would serve as the principal advisor to the secretary of defense on all commercial innovation and integration in the Pentagon, while implementing policies and procedures related to acquiring commercial products, commercial components and commercial services, per the preference under section 3453 of U.S. Code Title 10.

The undersecretary would also be responsible for promoting modular open system architecture approaches in acquisition in order to “encourage increased competition and the more frequent use of commercial technology within the Department,” the legislation states.

It also adds the duty of “providing for an alternate path to integrate commercial technology into the Department that does not include applying the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System process to the acquisition of technology that readily exists in the commercial sector.” That task would be performed alongside the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

In addition, lawmakers added qualifications to the role to include not only a civilian with a background in technology or science, but also someone with experience in “private or venture capital, commercial innovation or prototype-to-production transition” and “managing complex programs and leveraging public-private capital partnerships.”

At the same time, a separate provision in the subcommittee mark would shake up the organizational and management structure for the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), which aims to facilitate and accelerate the Pentagon’s adoption of commercial tech for military purposes.

‘‘The Director of the Defense Innovation Unit shall report directly to the Secretary of Defense without intervening authority and may communicate views on matters within the responsibility of the Unit directly to the Secretary without obtaining the approval or concurrence of any other official within the Department of Defense,” the mark states.

The Silicon Valley-based organization currently reports to Shyu’s office. The Pentagon named Doug Beck, a former vice president of Apple, as DIU’s new director in April. 

The provision requires the secretary to conduct an assessment of whether or not DIU is appropriately staffed to conduct its mission, as well as send a report to Congress about plans to address any staffing shortfalls and the funding required to do so.

The legislation did not clarify, however, how DIU’s elevated position within the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the newly defined roles for the proposed undersecretary of defense for technology integration and innovation would be reconciled.

Members of the subcommittee did not immediately respond to DefenseScoop’s request for comment. The Office of the Secretary of Defense would not comment on ongoing legislation. The Defense Innovation Unit also did not respond to requests for comment. 

The subcommittee is scheduled to mark up the policy bill on Tuesday.

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The department is requesting $55.4 billion to fund the Air and Space Forces’ research, development, test and evaluation efforts in fiscal 2024 — including investments in a dozen brand new programs that the department believes will help it maintain technological superiority over adversaries. But development cannot begin until Congress approves the DAF’s budget — a process that in recent years has been significantly delayed.

The next fiscal year begins Oct. 1, but Congress often fails to pass appropriations bills on time and federal agencies — including the Defense Department — have had to operate under continuing resolutions that generally don’t allow for new-start programs to begin.

“The problem that I have is the amount of time I have to wait for Congress to act,” Kendall told reporters during a media roundtable at the Space Symposium. 

To bypass potential wait times from the budget cycle, the Pentagon submitted a “Rapid Response to Emergent Technology Advancements or Threats” proposal to Congress that would give the services authorities to begin development of new-start programs all the way up to preliminary design review, Kendall said.

The authority would allow the Air and Space Forces to “leverage an emergent technological advancement of value to the national defense” or “provide a rapid response to an emerging threat,” according to the proposal, which was submitted to Congress on April 12.

Kendall pointed to the seven operational imperatives he created to serve as roadmaps for the department’s modernization efforts. The imperatives include programs like the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems — including the loyal wingman concept known as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) — and resilient space architectures.

“We finished that work about a year ago. A year ago, I had in my hand a number of recommendations on how to most effectively and rapidly spend money in order to get to better capabilities,” Kendall said. “I could have started a lot of those things a year ago, but now we’re going to wait a good year, I would expect — and I’m worried that it might be longer than that.”

One of the new-start projects Kendall noted he is concerned about is the CCA program, for which the Air Force is asking lawmakers about half-a-billion dollars in fiscal 2024 for research, development, test and evaluation.

The limited authority would allow the department to conduct development all the way through the preliminary design review — including the requirements tradeoff process, systems engineering and potentially risk reduction — as a way to move the program forward, Kendall said.

“That would buy us … at least a year-and-a-half or two years in terms of lead time. And it is essentially free,” he said.

Kendall noted that conversations he has had with lawmakers regarding the authority have been positive, although the approval would require Congress to be more flexible than usual.

“One of the reasons this hasn’t happened in the past is because Congress is reluctant to give up even this much authority,” Kendall said. “I think it’s a minimal amount of authority to give up for a very high return.”

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This new non-partisan research and engagement organization, publicly unveiled on Tuesday, is administered by the Institute for Defense Analyses, a nonprofit based in Alexandria, Virginia. Defense Department leaders who formed DMI aim for it to enable a fresh network of diverse experts, better tools and more informed research to solve the agency’s complex, interdisciplinary and evolving management-related struggles.

“Optimizing how we manage this gigantic enterprise is essential not only for safeguarding taxpayer dollars — our business systems are tied to our warfighting efforts. Meeting our management goals ensures the department achieves its military goals. So, that is why we cannot ignore or easily escape our immense management challenges,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks told attendees at DMI’s kickoff event in Virginia on Tuesday. 

“It is incumbent on us — with the life or death mission our servicemembers commit to and entrust us to oversee — to reform ourselves to help them,” she said.

The ‘fourth’ reform

The DOD is one of the biggest and most intricate enterprises in the world.

In addition to military units that operate nonstop around the globe, the department also has medical systems, school systems and universities, grocery chains, intelligence agencies, information systems, and more — all supported by multiple workforces and personnel systems. 

To former Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, the person tasked to help Hicks drive the department’s overarching modern management reform, the uniqueness of the DOD’s missions, size and diversity is “quite breathtaking.”

During the DMI symposium event on Tuesday, Donley — who serves in dual roles as DOD’s director of administration and management and its performance improvement officer — said using the World Bank’s latest GDP data, the department’s annual budget would rank among the top 20 largest economies in the world. 

“So as a thought experiment, ask yourself, ‘How would I manage an economy the size of the Netherlands — but instead of a free market economy, it is a command economy with all of its resources carefully, centrally balanced and distributed among competing missions, functions and activities, and then approved annually through an open democratic process?’” Donley said.

In his view, the department’s “long history of management, technological and organizational change has been evolutionary — and at the same time, punctuated by senior leader or congressional interventions, and the exigencies of world events.”

Part of the motivation for DMI’s establishment was the belief that officials across DOD “should know that history better than we often do,” he said. And overall, the Pentagon should be capturing and sharing lessons learned in better ways to inform lawmakers and federal leadership about successes and failures in this regard.

The rationale for the new institute also includes guidance from Congress that mandates the defense secretary to carry out a set of activities to improve management effectiveness and incorporate private sector-led practices and technologies to enhance the department’s associated workforce, Donley confirmed.

The fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act also directs the DOD to conduct reform-focused research to improve management and administrative science across its organization.

In a memo dated Jan. 13, Donley announced the official creation of DMI and laid out the Pentagon’s wide vision and its initial top three priorities. Those include: developing a defense management network of expertise and a community of practice with experts and practitioners from various disciplines and sectors who can be readily available to help the department confront crucial management issues; steering cutting-edge research on management topics to boost the informing of leadership; and building a digital repository of research and other resource materials on defense management.

Building on years of debate and a rocky history, Congress in 2020 dissolved the Pentagon’s chief management officer (CMO) role. This new institute in some ways represents how DOD is paving out a new approach for the future.

Donley said DMI is tasked with “looking back” and “looking forward.” 

Looking back, he said, the institute will review why the department’s CMO experience was historically “less than successful.” And then, “looking forward” Donley said DMI has been directed to assist the department in meeting the requirements of Title 10, Section 192 of the U.S. code, which requires periodic cyclical reviews of defense agencies and field activities. 

“The precise details of this effort are still under discussion and will be reviewed over the weeks ahead,” he confirmed.

At the event, Hicks also reflected on how the Pentagon is facing management challenges that are “multi-faceted and generational,” noting that “this has been a top priority for Secretary Lloyd Austin and for me.” 

Hicks spotlighted her team’s major focus areas and accomplishments so far regarding accelerating performance improvements within DOD. 

She said officials have worked to establish clear governance groups and ensure that decision-making processes are fair and effective.

“Second, we’ve also made changes to our organizational structures to implement and monitor reforms,” Hicks noted, pointing to the elevation of Donley’s roles prior to the stand-up of this new institute. 

“Third, we have taken substantial steps to transform the department into a data-driven organization,” she said, highlighting her establishment of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO), as well as the materials and capabilities it has recently been refining and deploying.

Now that her teams are setting up new technologies and have provided performance goals and measures, Hicks noted that their next step is to implement all those tools across DOD.

“The fourth major defense reform effort … is launching this Defense Management Institute. DMI is yet another major step forward in transforming the department to meet today’s national security challenges,” she said.

Details remain to be addressed

According to Hicks, DMI is “groundbreaking — because never before has there been an institute dedicated solely to performance improvement.” 

However, because it is so new at this point, a lot remains unclear about how the new institute will function and the outputs it’s meant to generate.

“There are some important details that remain to be addressed, such as how we will work across our DOD team internally to develop and coordinate priorities for a DMI research agenda,” Donley noted on Tuesday at the DMI symposium.

During a call with reporters on Monday to preview this news, a senior Defense official also left room for clarity on several matters associated with DMI.

For instance, in Donley’s memo announcing the new group, he wrote that DMI’s core work will be funded by his office through IDA’s contract with the Pentagon — and that its network will also conduct funded research on behalf of other agency components. 

“I’m really not talking [about budget] resources here,” the official said in response to questions from reporters on DMI funding.

Donley’s memo from mid-January also notes that the planned digital repository of research, and other assets “will be publicly available in the next few weeks.” On the call, the senior Defense official said “that’s a work-in-progress,” but that they did not have a specific date set for the new tool’s launch.

The official was also vague in answering DefenseScoop’s questions about the technical infrastructure that will underpin the envisioned repository. And when asked whether the system will host sensitive or classified information, the senior Defense official said: “I don’t think I can speak to that right now.”

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The agreement, inked at the Reagan National Defense Forum, is the first major move to support the OSC since Austin announced the establishment of the office Thursday.

The letter of intent, obtained by DefenseScoop, noted that the DOD and SBA have had a long history of developing and implementing innovation funding programs to support private sector R&D, such as the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs.

However, “with the recent launch of the DoD Office of Strategic Capital, we enter a new phase as both agencies aim to expand the relationship to scale private sector innovation. We will work together to increase the flow of private capital into technology areas critical to our Nation’s future economic prosperity and defense capabilities,” it said.

The initiative is intended to help address a major problem the Pentagon is facing.

“Today, the Department of Defense depends on private capital to develop and commercialize critical technologies for our troops. Unfortunately, private markets don’t always have incentives to invest in these technologies, which often require longer-term investments … And so without access to capital, for the time that it takes to develop key new technologies, those innovations could die on the vine, or our competitors could get there first. So we’re looking for new and creative approaches” to tackle the issue, Austin said at the signing ceremony.

The new agreement with the SBA, which will leverage loan guarantees to private capital investors, will help “secure funding for critical areas for national defense and ensure that our warfighters get the capabilities they need before they need them,” he added.

The agencies will be aligning their efforts by leveraging the Small Business Administration’s longstanding Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program, which was established in the 1950s to help fill “market gaps.”

Guzman said the initiative helped propel major tech companies like Apple, Intel, Tesla and others in their early days.

The Small Business Administration already licenses and funds hundreds of SBIC companies, which currently manage over $37 billion in federal and private capital, according to Guzman.

“The program is the basis for the expansion of our partnership today,” she said at the signing ceremony with Austin. It is “leveraging federal and private capital to crowd investments into early-stage companies so that they can scale and succeed in the marketplace.”

The new partnership with DOD announced on Saturday will focus on the critical technology areas that the Pentagon has identified as essential for long-term national security. The letter of intent did not mention specific technologies, but Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu has previously identified 14 critical technology areas that she is focused on.

The letter of intent said: “With this initiative, the DoD and the SBA will work together to increase the availability of scale-up investment capital in our Nation’s critical technology areas, working with private sector investors to leverage their expertise and investment track records to ensure the world’s greatest technologies and companies continue to develop and growth within the United States. These investments will be an important step in the growth and modernization of our national security innovation base, ensuring future national security and continued economic prosperity.”

During a background briefing with reporters at the forum, a senior Defense official told DefenseScoop that the Pentagon and SBA won’t be picking the companies that receive funding from investors under the program.

Unlike many of the other DOD initiatives focused on bolstering commercial enterprises that produce dual-use technologies, the program will leverage SBA funding to offer loans and loan guarantees to investors who want to help bankroll companies working on cutting-edge tech.

“The way the SBIC program works is that the SBA licenses investors, and those investors can then raise their own private capital in the private markets, and that private capital can be matched by leverage through loan guarantees that the SBA provides to those investors in order to build a new fund. And that fund can focus on a wide variety of things,” the official explained.

For the initiative, investors will be applying to the SBIC program through a standard application process run by the Small Business Administration, to be licensed as investors to support technology areas identified by the Pentagon as critical to national defense.

The SBA has the authority to commit $5 billion of loan-guarantee leverage to the SBIC program annually, according to the senior Defense official.

“That is a significant amount of capital that can be supporting companies developing technologies in relation to national security. And when you think about our critical technology areas, there’s a wide variety of opportunities to invest,” the official told reporters. “From a technology advancement perspective, we see these tools providing incredible opportunities for investors to be able to lower the cost of capital to invest in these companies. Tools like debt allow for more patient investments. They provide for longer time horizons, and they also create an opportunity to reduce dilution in the investment itself.”

Another benefit is that taxpayers aren’t expected to ultimately foot the bill, according to the official.

“Loan guarantees are built in a way where we’re expecting those funds to be returned. So instead of like contracts or grants, this provides us an opportunity to align incentives around growth, around scale, around revenue in order to ensure … the taxpayer’s return,” they said.

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The new office is meant to connect companies developing tech in support of national security with organizations that can help fund and sustain their growth long enough to reach wider production.

Often, the innovative technology companies that would be supported by OSC fall into what’s known as the “valley of death” — the phenomenon where the Pentagon’s bureaucratic, often slow-moving acquisition system can stifle successful innovative pilots from moving forward into production because the companies can’t receive funding quickly enough.

“We are in a global competition for leadership in critical technologies, and the Office of Strategic Capital will help us win that competition and build enduring national security advantages,” Austin said in a statement. “By working with the private capital markets and by partnering with our federal colleagues, OSC will address investment gaps and add a new tool to the Department’s investment toolbox.”

The office will be overseen by the secretary of defense and feature an advisory council consisting of the undersecretaries of defense, among others. In specific, OSC will complement the work of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and its components in the Defense Innovation Unit and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) by helping to provide their private sector research partners with longer-term vehicles for private capital.

A key goal of the office will also be to deter innovative American companies from seeking capital that may support the work of the United States’ strategic competitors.

“America’s strategic competitors are working to influence U.S. technological innovation to their advantage,” said Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu. “OSC is part of a broader administration-wide effort to ‘crowd-in’ private capital in areas where our efforts can boost our future security and prosperity.”

Shyu said the hope is OSC will “strike its first deals by early next year.”

The Trump administration established a similar office called the Trusted Capital Marketplace, which was created by the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.

The DOD said in an announcement that this new office differs from existing programs in that it uses “non-acquisition-based tools, such as loans and loan guarantees,” as many other federal agencies do.

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The important Navy post has not been filled by a Senate-confirmed official since James “Hondo” Geurts stepped down as assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition near the end of the Trump administration. Frederick Stefany has been serving as the acting assistant secretary for RD&A since January 2021.

Guertin is currently the director of operational test and evaluation of U.S. military weapon systems in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. His nomination must be confirmed by the Senate before he can take on the Navy leadership role.

“He has an extensive four-decade combined military and civilian career in submarine operations, ship construction and maintenance, development and testing of weapons, sensors, combat management products including the improvement of systems engineering, and defense acquisition,” the White House said in the Friday announcement.

Notably, Guertin has previously been involved in applied research for government and academia in “software-reliant and cyber-physical systems” at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, according to his Defense Department bio.

His nomination comes as the Navy, and the Defense Department writ large, are putting more emphasis on software and cyber capabilities as the Pentagon pursues concepts like Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2), which the Navy is contributing to as part of its secretive Project Overmatch effort.

“Over his career, [Guertin] has been in leadership roles of organizational transformation, improving competition, application of modular open system approaches, as well as prototyping and experimentation. He has also researched and published extensively on software-reliant system design, testing, and acquisition,” the White House said.

He previously served in the Navy Reserve as an engineering duty officer.

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Since its inception, DARPA has played a critical role in ushering in game-changing technology such as the internet, stealth, precision-guided munitions, handheld GPS, and vaccine platforms that use mRNA technology, among others. But some of those innovations took longer for the military to field than new capabilities should going forward, according to Hicks.

“Think about stealth aircraft, for example. If you compare when DARPA initiated the project that led to the first experimental stealth aircraft, ‘Have Blue,’ to when we fielded an operational F-117 Nighthawk — that took nearly a decade. It took another decade for stealth technology to be incorporated into an operational B-2 bomber — and another decade or two after that for stealth to be mainstreamed across much of our combat aircraft fleet, in the form of the F-22 and the F-35 stealth fighters,” she said during virtual remarks at the first “DARPA Forward” series of outreach events, which kicked off this week at the Colorado State University campus in Fort Collins, Colorado.

“Perhaps that timeline was tolerable in the Cold War, when our main strategic competitor was relatively lumbering and slow. But today, we have to evolve faster than the threats evolve,” Hicks continued. “Simply put, we don’t have decades to wait for the latest and greatest concepts and capabilities to proliferate across our military forces.”

The department needs to reduce the “lab-to-fab” timeline from decades to years or, in some cases, months, Hicks said.

In many cases, promising technologies never get fielded. The Pentagon has long struggled to overcome the so-called “valley of death” where innovations die on the vine before they ever make it into large-scale production.

“We’ve got to be thinking early and often about what happens after DARPA proves a concept and prototypes a capability — who carries the ball forward, and how,” Hicks said.

“The job doesn’t stop with prototyping and experimentation. More than ever before, we also have to think about what comes next, like how do we transition our most effective prototypes to become mainstream systems in the field? How do we take pockets of innovation and scale what they’re doing throughout the defense enterprise? It’s not that we can’t do this — we can, and we do — but it’s got to be easier, and it has got to be faster,” she said.

DARPA works on a wide range of technologies that could give the U.S. military a leg up in future conflicts. FedScoop asked Hicks which one was her top priority for the Defense Department.

“At the top of my list of challenges right now is making sure that we can increase speed of decision quality, and speed of decision and action. And there are a lot of different technologies that come together, a lot of different organizational innovations and operational concepts that come together to make that kind of command-and-control speed of decision improve,” she replied.

“Obviously cloud enterprise, cloud capability is a piece of that. AI and making sure we take best advantage of data, ensure we have quality data, [and] we do all of that in a responsible way — those are some of the technology areas I’m focused on to get to that operational end state,” Hicks continued.

Those capabilities will be key to DOD efforts to achieve leadership’s vision for its Joint All-Domain Command and Control initiative, which aims to enable commanders to make better and faster decisions by linking disparate U.S. military networks and deploying supporting capabilities such as artificial intelligence, among other things.

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