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The US must harness the power of Silicon Valley to spur military innovation

We must further advance efforts that coordinate resources across Silicon Valley and other innovation ecosystems.

The Department of Defense, other U.S. government agencies and a bipartisan consensus in Congress realize that China is strategically leveraging diplomacy, information and intelligence, its military might and economic strength, and all other instruments of its national power to redefine the future world order.

Given China’s stated goals and objectives, we should expect continuity in this assessment in the coming decades.

To any dispassionate observer, U.S. responses to China’s aggressive whole-of-government efforts to dominate – especially in the military domain – have been piecemeal and ineffective. The systems (and people) we have in place to respond (requirements, acquisition, budgeting) were designed to optimize lifecycle cost and manage 30-year DOTMLPF processes.

Yet, we need the opposite to compete with our strategic rival – speed, urgency, scale, short life cycle, and attributable systems. Existing DoD systems are not designed to effectively tap into a commercial technology ecosystem that’s now driving most of the DoD-relevant advanced tech (AI/ML, autonomy, biotech, quantum, access to space, semiconductors, etc.)

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