The term “National Security Industrial Base” (NSIB) appeared in the 2018
National Security Strategy. The NSIB is the “network of knowledge, capabilities, and people including academia, National Laboratories, and the private sector that turns ideas into innovations [and] transforms discoveries into successful commercial products.” This report outlines elements of the NSIB and how a commercially driven innovation differs from a defense-centric approach to technology. The U.S. innovation ecosystem is based on a mix of strong research universities, flexible financial systems, a competitive business focus, and risk-taking, entrepreneurial culture that is skilled at commercializing research. Other countries have similar strengths, but not at the same scale.
White House’s slate of nominees would put familiar faces back in the Pentagon 5 days ago Clockwise: Heidi Shyu, Michael Brown, Christine Wormuth and Frank Kendall. (Spc. Isaac Adams/U.S. Army; U.S. Defense Department; Gabriella Demczuk/Getty Images; Tom Pennington/Getty Images) WASHINGTON After three months of silence on who would make up his administration’s top Pentagon leaders, President Joe Biden announced the names of 17 potential officials in April. Of those, four will be critical in deciding how the Pentagon will modernize and how it will transition to focus on China in an era of relatively constrained spending.
Is acquisition innovation going mainstream?
It was probably four years ago that I was moderating a panel on acquisition with an official from the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental organization known at the time as DIUx.
Experimental is gone from the name, but DIU continues on.
I asked this official if the concept of innovative acquisition spreads, which is one of DIU’s goals, would he be out of a job one day.
It drew a laugh, but he also said that he hoped so.
A lot has changed since then and you see plenty of signs across the market that the use of innovative acquisitions have spread across the government as agencies push for new technologies and solutions, plus quicker ways of buying.
How the F-16 Could Fly For Decades to Come
A new program could help keep track of the different systems on a plane and could try to predict when a part, such as an engine, might eventually fail.
The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) has been working with industry to integrate new artificial intelligence (AI), automation and machine-learning technology into aircraft as a way to anticipate and predict potential maintenance failures.
If a pilot has advanced knowledge of exactly when and how an F-16 jet fighter might malfunction, and can therefore predict or anticipate engine failure or other potentially mission-impacting dynamics, the aircraft naturally has a vastly improved opportunity to improve operational functionality, service life and overall airwar effectiveness.