faint-hearted, it belongs ott brave it belongs to the brave. so we re determine thed to deter aggression and prevent conflict and to establish communities guardrails, and our new initiatives are part of a government-wide approach that draws on all tools of national power to meet china challenge. now, this department has been stepping up its efforts on china since the very first days of the biden administration. our china task force sharpened department s priorities and charted a path to greater focus and coordination. we made the department s largest ever budget request for research, development, testing and evaluation. and we re investing in new capabilities that the will make us more lethal from greater distances and more capable of operating stealthy and unmanned platforms. and more resilient under the
that right here in california. nobody innovates better than the united states of america. but we can t take that for granted. and at the department of defense, that means that serious changes to some of the ways that we ve done business must be done. so let s face it, for far too long it s been far too hard for innovators and entrepreneurs to work with the department. and the barriers for entry into this effort to work with us in national security is often too steep, far too steep. you know, in my recent travels i ve seen some outstanding examples of cutting edge tactic including weeks ago in bahrain
the form and fashion where we ended up finding them and how they got there, totality would be determined if there s any applicable extra charges or not but i think it lends to the original charge that if there s no culpability, why would you be in a warehouse in detroit? in terms of their distress, chief and i talked about that, i don t want to get to into that, it could be distress because there, or the totality of the situation. some members of your department expressed frustration think the prosecutor didn t let you know ahead of time the charges were coming. was your department caught off guard by the charges? we had some disconnect, the prosecutor s office in chief investigators, we ve communicated and spent handled
us. so the department has to do the better. let me el you about some steps that we re taking the way to transform the way we do business. first, we re paving new pathways for american innovators and entrepreneurs to work with us. consider the defense advance research projects agency, better known as darpa. it is legendary for scientific breakthroughs. but now darpa is also connecting its top research teams with corporate leaders and u.s. investors so that the those teams can build successful businesses with cutting edge technologies that they develop. second, we re doubling down on our small business innovation research program which, as it
happens, was signed into law by president reagan. this program helps american firms to pursue r&d tailored to the department the s unique tech requirements department s unique tech requirements and so far this year, we ve awarded funds to more than 2500 small businesses working on ground-breaking tech. we re also doing more to integrate the department s innovators into tech hubs around the country where academics and business leaders and innovators thrive. so we recently opened defense innovation hubs in seattle and chicago. adding to other sites from austin to boston. so the goal here is simple, to connect with new talent who will help us compete and win on challenges from countering