Exponentially evolving technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning have been exhaustively discussed and debated over the winter and spring during Congressional hearings on President Joe Biden’s $860 billion Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) defense request.
But one stubborn systemic disconnect threatens to disrupt the timely delivery of new systems and programs into weapons and operations systems—the Pentagon’s cumbersome, ponderous procurement and implementation bureaucracy.
To invigorate participation from technology firms in the United States, the Department of Defense (DOD) in 2015 created the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to assist in quickly incorporating emerging commercial technologies into military operations.
After its launch as an “experimental” program, in 2016, DIU was reorganized under then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and placed directly under the DOD Secretary’s office, elevating the unit as one of “secretary-level” importance….