Collaborative Disruption at DoD
Summary
TLDRThe script recounts the intertwined histories of the US defense sector and Silicon Valley's technological innovations, emphasizing their symbiotic relationship. It highlights the pivotal role of government agencies like NASA, DARPA, and the Pentagon in fostering groundbreaking advancements through funding and partnerships. The speaker underscores the urgency for the Department of Defense to accelerate innovation, streamline processes, and actively collaborate with the private sector to outpace adversaries like China. Ultimately, the speech rallies for preserving American dynamism and democracy as intrinsically linked forces that enable technological progress while upholding democratic values and institutions.
Takeaways
- 📚 The narrative of Silicon Valley mirrors the broader American story, highlighting themes of pursuit, innovation, and varying degrees of participation and support.
- 📈 Silicon Valley's growth and the technology sector's evolution were significantly bolstered by both private initiative and public institution support, underscoring the importance of collaboration.
- 🖥 Government investments, like those from NASA and the Pentagon, played a crucial role in driving down costs and fostering commercial applications of new technologies.
- 🏆 The script highlights the interwoven histories and destinies of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the technology community, emphasizing the cyclical nature of their relationship.
- 💻 It addresses the shift in innovation and R&D funding from predominantly government-led in the mid-20th century to being majorly driven by private companies today, urging an update in DOD's engagement with innovation.
- 🛠 The importance of adopting innovations and collaborating with the private sector is emphasized to maintain military superiority and national security.
- 🚁 The narrative acknowledges challenges and barriers within the DOD's innovation ecosystem and outlines efforts to streamline processes, encourage rapid prototyping, and foster collaboration.
- 🚨 It calls for continued and enhanced collaboration between the government and the tech sector to address national security challenges, particularly those posed by global competitors like China.
- 📝 The speaker advocates for strengthening democratic principles and the rule of law as foundational to innovation and national defense, suggesting a symbiotic relationship between democracy and technological advancement.
- 🔨 The closing remarks invoke a sense of duty and collective responsibility among businesses and individuals in the tech industry to contribute to national defense and uphold democratic values.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the speech?
-The speech focuses on the importance of innovation and the collaboration between the Department of Defense (DOD) and the tech sector (particularly Silicon Valley) in driving technological advancements for national security.
What is the significance of the story of Silicon Valley mentioned in the speech?
-The speaker likens the story of Silicon Valley to the story of America, emphasizing the pursuit of fortune, the American dream, free enterprise, entrepreneurial spirit, and the role of institutions and communities in supporting innovators.
How has the DOD's approach to innovation changed over the years?
-Initially, the DOD dominated research and development funding, but since the 1980s, companies have contributed a larger share. The DOD has recognized the need to keep pace with the dynamic private sector and has implemented various initiatives to accelerate innovation and collaboration.
What are some of the specific initiatives mentioned by the speaker to drive innovation within the DOD?
-The speaker mentions initiatives like Replicator (to rapidly field autonomous systems), streamlining acquisition pathways, embracing innovative contracting tools, focusing on talent and workforce development, investing in AI and data analytics, and creating new leadership positions and organizations.
How does the speaker view the role of China in relation to innovation?
-The speaker portrays China's actions, such as IP theft, predatory investment strategies, and coercive military behavior, as a major reason for the recent surge in U.S. defense tech startups and investments, highlighting the need for the U.S. to maintain its innovative edge.
What is the significance of the Replicator initiative mentioned in the speech?
-Replicator aims to rapidly field thousands of attrable autonomous systems across multiple domains within 18-24 months, showcasing the DOD's ability to move quickly and equip warfighters with the necessary capabilities, challenging the traditional slow acquisition processes.
How does the speaker emphasize the importance of collaboration between the DOD and Congress?
-The speaker highlights the strong bipartisan support from Congress for driving innovation initiatives like Replicator, and stresses the need for Congress to pass appropriations quickly to avoid obstructing the DOD's innovation efforts.
What is the connection between American dynamism and American democracy according to the speaker?
-The speaker argues that American dynamism (innovation, entrepreneurship) and American democracy are intertwined, with the success of one depending on the other. Upholding democratic principles and institutions is essential for continued innovation and technological progress.
Why does the speaker mention Dave Packard's quote about business institutions' responsibility to society?
-The speaker cites Packard's quote to emphasize the historical connection between the tech sector and national defense efforts, and to highlight the responsibility of businesses to contribute to the society that enables their freedom and success.
What is the overall message of the speech?
-The overall message is a call for collaboration between the DOD and the tech sector to drive innovation and maintain America's technological edge, while emphasizing the interdependence of American dynamism and American democracy, and the necessity of defending and investing in both.
Outlines
🌎 The Story of America's Innovation: From Humble Beginnings to Global Leadership
This paragraph traces the story of Silicon Valley and the technology sector in the United States, drawing parallels to the broader American experience. It highlights the role of pioneers, immigrants, and dreamers who dared to reimagine the future and push boundaries. The narrative emphasizes the collaborative nature of innovation, involving teams, teachers, and institutions that supported and enabled groundbreaking advancements. The paragraph underscores the critical role of government agencies like NASA, the Pentagon, and National Science Foundation in funding and nurturing technologies that later found widespread commercial applications.
⚡ Accelerating Innovation: DOD's Comprehensive Approach
This paragraph outlines the Department of Defense's (DOD) comprehensive and iterative approach to innovation over the past three years. It emphasizes the urgency to innovate and provide cutting-edge capabilities to American warfighters. The paragraph details various initiatives undertaken by the DOD, including developing novel operational concepts, accelerating prototyping and experimentation, embracing flexible acquisition pathways, collaborating with commercial and non-traditional firms, fostering data interoperability, and prioritizing talent acquisition. It highlights the DOD's efforts to break down barriers, streamline processes, and bridge the gaps between research, prototyping, and large-scale deployment.
⏱️ Expediting Innovation: Replicator and Overcoming Systemic Challenges
This paragraph focuses on the DOD's recent initiative, Replicator, aimed at rapidly fielding thousands of attritable autonomous systems across multiple domains within 18 to 24 months. It discusses the challenges and disruption caused by such an ambitious endeavor, which defies traditional DOD acquisition timelines. The paragraph highlights the progress made thus far, including aligning leaders, identifying operational needs, developing acquisition strategies, and preparing resource allocation plans. It emphasizes the DOD's determination to make such rapid innovation cycles the new normal, given the persistent competition with adversaries like China.
🇺🇸 Strengthening American Democracy and Dynamism
This paragraph underscores the interdependence between American dynamism and American democracy. It argues that the success of private sector innovation and the tech sector depends on upholding the rule of law, protecting intellectual property, ensuring equal rights and opportunities, and safeguarding the institutions that provide the foundation for liberty. The paragraph cautions against the authoritarian winds sweeping the globe and emphasizes the need to defend American democracy as a prerequisite for continued technological advancement and global leadership. It calls for a collective effort to strengthen democratic principles, as the success of American dynamism is intrinsically tied to the health of American democracy.
🔗 The Inextricable Link: Innovation, Democracy, and National Defense
The final paragraph reinforces the interconnected nature of innovation, democracy, and national defense. It cites the words of Dave Packard, one of Silicon Valley's pioneers, who acknowledged the responsibility of businesses to contribute to the defense effort as part of their obligation to the society that enables their freedom and success. The paragraph emphasizes the historical bond between technological advancements and the nation's security, dating back to the Cold War era. It concludes by affirming that defending American democracy and investing in it are essential for continued innovation and global leadership, as both are inextricably linked and worth defending.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Innovation
💡Collaboration
💡American Dynamism
💡Democracy
💡Warfighters
💡People's Republic of China (PRC)
💡Valleys of Death
💡Artificial Intelligence (AI)
💡Acquisition
💡Ecosystem
Highlights
The story of Silicon Valley and the tech sector shares much with the story of America - a story of immigrants pursuing the American dream, of free enterprise and entrepreneurial spirit, of dreamers and builders pioneering new frontiers and reimagining the future.
It's not just a story of rugged individualists and founders, but also a story of the institutions, collaborations, teams, and teachers that supported them.
The government played a crucial role in enabling commercial innovation, such as NASA's procurement of silicon chips, DOD's creation of GPS, and NSF's funding of early internet and AI research.
While the ties between the Pentagon and the tech community have waxed and waned over the decades, the Department of Defense (DOD) now recognizes the need to better partner with and value non-traditional and commercial innovators.
The script has flipped since the 1980s, with companies now contributing 50-70% of America's R&D, but DOD's rules have not caught up, and they often struggle to keep pace with the dynamic private sector.
DOD's recent surge in defense tech investments, driven partly by China's behavior, is an opportunity, but the biggest reason is to tap into America's comparative advantage in innovation to maintain military superiority.
Secretary Austin and the speaker have focused on the urgency to innovate, taking a comprehensive, iterative, warfighter-centric approach to delivering combat-credible capabilities at speed and scale.
The speaker outlines several initiatives to bridge the valleys of death between lab, prototype, product, and scale, such as novel operational concepts, flexible acquisition pathways, innovative contracting tools, and faster transition processes.
DOD has issued data decrees, affirmed ethical AI principles, updated policies on autonomous weapons, and focused on talent and personnel, including new leadership roles and organizations dedicated to innovation.
The 2024 budget request represents a significant investment in R&D and procurement, sending clear demand signals to industry and catalyzing private capital investment in critical technologies.
The Replicator initiative aims to field thousands of attritrable autonomous systems across multiple domains within 18-24 months, demonstrating DOD's ability to move fast and equip warfighters with needed capabilities.
The normal DOD process for buying new capabilities takes 5-10 years or more, but Replicator has aligned leaders, identified needs, nominated capabilities, and developed acquisition strategies in just 5 months.
Congress and bipartisan support have been key partners in driving innovation, but timely passage of appropriations is crucial to avoid obstructing progress.
Institutional and cultural change takes time, and more deliberate discomfort and collaborative disruption will be necessary to become better collaborators with the tech sector.
American dynamism and democracy are intertwined - defending one means defending the other, as private sector success depends on upholding democratic principles and institutions that provide the blanket of liberty.
Transcripts
good morning and thank you very much for
the kind
introduction the story of Silicon Valley
and the sector it symbolizes shares much
with the story of America it's a story
of millions going west to find their
Fortune of immigrants pursuing their own
American dream of not all people getting
to participate equally especially at
first it's a story of free enterprise
and entrepreneurial Spirit a story of
dreamers and Builders who darare to
Pioneer New Frontiers reimagine the
future and change the status
quo but it's not just a story of rugged
individualists Founders and funders it's
also a story of the institutions that
supported them and The Talented
communities around them it's a story of
collaboration of teams and teachers
formal and informal many are not
household names they may not have been
wealthy but they were indispensable to
every disruptive
innovation and it's a story of what
government of the People by the people
for the people can make
possible think of NASA and the Pentagon
buying so many silicon microchips in the
1960s to guide Moon rockets and minman
missiles that the price per chip fell
from $1,000 to $25 in just a few years
low enough for commercial
applications think of DOD creating GPS
decades before smartphone apps and
startup business models relied on the
geolocation Services it provides or the
National Science Foundation funding the
supercomputing center where Mark andreon
worked on his first web browser think of
DARPA funding early AI research at
Stanford the labs where Vince Surf and
Bob KH fathered the internet and the
grand challenges that road tested
Technologies used in today's
self-driving
cars of course none of that reduces the
audacity the Brilliance the creativity
and determination of all the innovators
past and present throughout America's
commercial technology sector the point
is our histories are bound up together
more deeply than we sometimes admit and
our Fates are too over the decades the
ties between the Pentagon and the Tech
Community have waxed and waned even
after Tech minded defense leaders like
Harold Brown Bill Perry and Ash Carter
sought to rekindle Flames rebuild
Bridges and rewire the Pentagon to be a
better partner some in DOD still
undervalue non-traditional and
Commercial commercial innovators in
Silicon Valley and
Beyond perhaps they longed for when
Federal money dominated the early 1950s
through the late 1970s When government
and especially DOD contributed between
1/ half and 2/3 of All American research
and development
dollars that same era birth dod's much
loved multi-year budgeting
processes in funding such Innovation it
was easy and Washington got comfortable
believing our processeses and pace could
dictate everything that followed but
since the 1980s the script has been
flipped with companies contributing 50
to 70% of America's R&D Pi yet dod's
rules of the game have not caught up not
only are we seldom Innovation pce
Setters too often we can struggle just
to keep Pace with a dynamic us private
sector that continues to out innovate
the
world of course it's a much larger pie
and we still invest a lot in real
dollars dod's 2024 R&D budget request of
$145 billion is triple what it was
during the Cold War it's more than what
alphabet Apple meta and Microsoft
combined spent on R&D last year and our
requested 2024 procurement budget what's
converted into fielded capabilities and
service
is even more $170
billion defense is not a small Market
likely one reason behind the recent
surge in US defense Tech focused
startups scale ups and private inventure
Capital some 2,000 deals investing over
a hundred uh billion dollars since 2021
per pitch book in the Wall Street
Journal but this Market opportunity
shouldn't be the only reason I'd assess
the biggest reason especially over the
last decade is the behavior of the
People's Republic of
China like IP theft predatory investment
strategies crackdowns on due diligence
companies and business intelligence
providers that VCS need to make smart
bets overtly forcing Tech to comply with
political ideologies use of forced labor
repression and exploitation of religious
minorities not to mention the prc's
coercive and risky military Behavior
now to come to a summit on American
dynamism is to make a choice you know
what the alternative looks like you know
who you want to win so I'm glad you
chose Team USA because DOD needs you
with us our nation has a major
comparative advantage when it comes to
Innovation and for our military to stay
the world's best we have to tap into
that your patriotism
Matters from day one secretary Austin
and I have focused on the urgency to
innovate we do so with our war Fighters
foremost in mind as they stand watch
around the world just this weekend three
American soldiers were killed by Iranian
backed militias in Jordan they made the
ultimate sacrifice and we joined their
families and loved ones in mourning
their
loss because we owe them and every US
service member our very best for 3 years
now we have taken a comprehensive
iterative war fighter Centric approach
to Innovation recognizing we Face an
accumulation of challenges and barriers
and there is no Silver Bullet that will
lower them all along the way we've never
wavered from our ultimate objective
delivering safe and reliable combat
credible capabilities at speed and scale
to America's Warf Fighters so they can
deter aggression and win if called to
fight
why the urgency because the PRC has
spent decades building a modern military
designed primarily to do one thing
overmatch us but the one advantage they
can never outmatch steal or copy because
it's embedded in our people is American
Ingenuity our ability to think freely
innovate change the game and in the
military sphere to imagine create and
master the Future character of warfare
our starting position is stronger as a
free and open Society of Blue Sky
inventors doers and problem solvers we
don't see to control Innovation or make
it tow the party line instead we aim to
seed spark and stoke the Flames of
innovation and with so much happening
outside of DOD that requires better
adopting Innovations wherever they add
the most military
value an important way we do that is by
Bridging the much discussed valleys of
death valleys because there are several
labed prototype prototype to product
product to scale there are still others
and The Valleys can be especially
treacherous to cross if you're new to
working with
DOD now these valleys are necessary for
any healthy Innovation ecosystem not
every idea or prototype should scale
because not all of them work for the
world fighter and we need more creative
prospects coming in than are likely to
make it out so that we push the
Innovation Edge and avoid group
think it's similar in Silicon Valley
there's a reason why fail fast and
iterate is a
montra not every founder who pitches a
VC gets funded not every company with a
series a round makes it to series B andc
and so on only some get bought or go
public we've all met plenty of good idea
fairies but I don't know anyone that's
always
right so our goal isn't for everything
to cross the valleys of death instead it
is to get the right things across them
to the right people at the right time
that requires a fast moving cycle from
identifying key capability needs to
effective Solutions a Warf fighter
defined investment funnel if you will
comprising novel operational Concepts
prototyping experimentation expeditious
acquisition Pathways open doors for
newcomers to enter and a More Level
Playing
Field every piece should be constantly
iterating moving rapidly responsibly and
securely because if something doesn't
work or isn't secure it's not useful for
the warf fighter it loses its value and
when something does prove valuable we
need to be able to produce and deploy it
at scale and speed
let me tell you some of what we've done
in the last three years to get at this
problem and I'll do it in three
minutes we've been repeatedly iterating
on novel operational concepts for joint
War fighting we have new processes to
incentivize and accelerate promising
joint capabilities and experiments to
advance those operational Concepts
shrinking their Time Crossing The
Valleys of death by as much as 2
years to bridge the lab to prototype and
prototype to scale ale valleys of death
we're using more flexible acquisition
Pathways for rapid prototyping rapid
fielding and software development over
$35 billion have gone through these
Pathways since 2021 across nearly 200
programs they've shaved up to six years
off transition and delivery timelines
for war fighter
priorities to work better with
commercial and non-traditional firms
we're embracing Innovative Contracting
tools that that can be easier for them
to navigate we also sped how we
transition the most promising
capabilities to scale by overcoming
bureaucratic and cultural barriers that
slow us
down we knew all that was necessary
because of our work to map and then
methodically debug the whole DOD
Innovation ecosystem a nose to
grindstone effort that like software
development never ends as one of the
world's largest organizations we must
always look for ways to get out of Our
Own
Way Beyond that we issued data decrees
that all DOD data must comply with
because data interoperability access and
trustworthiness are critical for AI for
doing command and control across all
domains and for being a modern defense
department no
excuses we also affirmed ethical AI
principles updated our decade old but
still World leading policy on
responsible use of autonomous weapon
systems and and issued new strategies
and implementation plans on data
analytics AI adoption and responsible
AI simultaneously we focused on talent
and Personnel from the Ada initiative
that deploys data scientists to every
combatant command to continuously
upscaling our acquisition
Workforce we also brought focused
leadership to critical organizations and
stood up new ones we elevated the
defense Innovation unit to report
directly to the secretary so it can help
focus and accelerate how we Leverage The
Best of commercially derived Tech diu is
now led by a former direct report to
Apple
CEO we integrated disperate digital Ai
and data analytics teams under an
empowered Chief digital and artificial
intelligence officer who previously ran
machine learning at Lyft he also reports
directly to secretary
Austin and we created the Office of
strategic Capital to partner with
private sector uh private Capital excuse
me markets and catalyze investment in
Technologies critical to National
Security across the board we're making
smart serious investments in terms of
real dollar value our 2024 budget
request would make the second largest
investment in defense R&D plus
procurement since
1952 we'd send industry clear demand
signals with things like multi-year
procurement for key
Munitions funding to expand industrial
based facilities workforces sub tier
suppliers and more secure Supply
chains meanwhile throughout we're
ensuring our defense dollars deliver by
providing effective oversight for the
taxpayer our three minutes are up and I
get it if your eyes glazed over not all
of this is headline grabbing but
remember there are no silver bullets all
of it is absolutely necessary to drag
DOD into the modern era our efforts are
fundamentally resetting behavior for
defense innovators program managers
resource leaders and decision makers and
even though it's collaborative that kind
of disruption can still be
uncomfortable take replicator one of our
most recent
initiatives replicators goal has always
been simple and straightforward to field
thousands of ATT trable autonomous
systems in multiple domains within 18 to
24 months and to prove ways to burn down
risk and rapidly and safely overcome
barriers to
scaling it's about showing ourselves and
our adversaries the dod can move fast to
shape the battle space and equip our war
Fighters with what they need and as
we've said from the outset we'll be
replicating that process in other areas
beyond all domain at trable autonomous
systems reactions to replicator have
been a bit of a warshock test maybe
that's because as The Washington Post
said it surprised the entire defense
establishment a wide range of responses
isn't uncommon when you're pursuing
collaborative disruption and you can't
let the more negative views knock you
off track so we haveen it we've put our
heads down worked with congress with the
commercial sector and across DOD to
deliver and today we are on track to
meet replicators
goals in five months we've aligned
leaders across DOD around common Vision
identified and validated key operational
needs requirements from combatant
commands nominated and selected initial
capabilities to meet those needs across
multiple domains developed acquisition
strategies for each capability to
determine which systems to field
analyzed what resources it will take to
deliver on those capabilities and where
the gaps are and in the next several
days we'll submit a spend plan and
reprogramming request to Congress what
we we did in 5 months normally takes DOD
2 to 3 years if you're not sure what is
more mindblowing how fast we did it or
how long it normally takes I don't blame
you honestly the length of our normal
process should blow your
mind it's because our system for buying
new capabilities was designed in that
1960s era of deod innovation dominance
and reinforced after the Cold War when
our leading conventional military
capabilities seemed
unbeatable so most things still start
with that inevitable inexurable
multi-year budget process and Take 5 to
10 years or more to field its
scale to go from start to Fielding
inside the 2-year cycle is not normal
it's
disruptive but we plan to make it normal
because more speed is
essential this this is not the Cold War
nor the post-cold War era with the PRC
we are in a persistent generational
competition for Advantage and we have to
double down with urgency and
confidence Congress is and always will
be a key partner in this even as open
collaborative leadership within the
Pentagon is also
essential and we've been fortunate to
have strong bipartisan support on many
fronts for driving innovation including
the replicator initiative from
Congressman Gallagher who you'll hear
from later today also Congressman
Calbert who's championing Innovation
like never before in the Appropriations
process Senator tester whose laser
focused on ensuring we can out compete
China by modernizing do as well as
Senator Reed who has been
stalwart like them we also want Congress
to come together to pass Appropriations
for 2024 ASAP it's long over the DU and
the delay is devastating we're 4 months
into the fiscal year any more delays
will only obstruct all the great work
we're trying to do
together thinking differently does not
come easy to large organizations and the
Pentagon is no exception we still have
many more pain points to address across
dod's Innovation
ecosystem institutional and cultural
change takes time constant tending and
consistent leadership we've got to keep
listening learning and iterating to
continually become better customers and
collaborators with the tech sector so
make no mistake more deliberate
discomfort will be required more
collaborative disruption will be
necessary the future of our nation
depends on it and it depends on you
because American dynamism and American
democracy are inexorably
intertwined enforcing contracts and
protecting IP depends on upholding the
rule of law hiring a talented Workforce
depends on having good schools
universities and immigration the
flourishing of all Americans depends on
ensuring equal rights and equal
opportunity for all and starting a
business investing in others inventing a
product and taking it to Market depends
on safeguarding the institutions that
provide the blanket of Liberty under
which you do so if we want to keep
changing the world then we have to
strengthen the Democratic principles
that make this nation so worth defending
and make changing the world even
possible our country is not immune from
the authoritarian winds that sweep the
globe we have seen America routinely
tested while she has withstood we cannot
take that for granted institutions can
be degraded belief in institutions can
fade both endanger the health of our
nation and your success we want private
sector in Innovation to to succeed we
want American dynamism we need you to
feel the same about American democracy
because neither can Thrive unless the
other
succeeds we all have to work together to
defend our country and its
beliefs yes moving fast and breaking
things is necessary to win Wars but
remember there will always be at least
two things that every civilian and
Military member serving in DOD must
never break the law and our owes to the
United States
Constitution how we do this matters our
ends and our means for achieving them
them are intertwined because the end we
seek is for American democracy and
dynamism to continue to Long
Ure many years ago one of silicon
Valley's original garage Founders Dave
Packard spoke about his company's quote
obligation to make some contributions to
the defense effort in times of of Peace
as well as in times of War he said it
was part of quote business institutions
having a responsibility to the society
in which they exist to do something more
than simply make a
profit why because in his words we have
freedom of action which is the direct
result of the American type of
government Packard said that nine months
before the Soviets launch sputnick
bringing Tech competition to the
Forefront of America's Cold War
consciousness and he said it 12 years
before he came to Washington to serve as
deputy secretary of
defense like I said our histories are
bound together more than we sometimes
admit that binding enabled Silicon
Valley to thrive to drive successive
areas of technological Evolution and
Revolution to change the world again and
again that's worth defending America is
worth defending an American democracy is
worth defending and both are worth
investing in thank
[Applause]
you
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