Defense Technology

Now is the time to take DIUx global

Defense News: The Defense Innovation Unit Experimental — the Pentagon’s signature effort to engage commercial technology startups ― is primed to go global. In fact, DIUx could become a key platform by which the United States and its allies and partners come together to address shared military challenges ― if its next managing director and supporters in the Pentagon and Congress are prepared to seize the moment.

Launched in 2015, DIUx reflected a growing realization that the U.S. military needs to more effectively leverage innovations developed in the commercial technology sector. Intended as a workaround to a sclerotic defense acquisitions process, DIUx came to rely on an obscure contracting authority to rapidly award prototype projects to innovative companies ― a welcome change to the Pentagon business models that never managed to align with the technology industry’s far faster pace.

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