ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the history of industry and commercial products' role and importance in defense. It suggests that methodologies to keep the US Department of Defense (DOD) on the cutting edge in both high technology and efficiency. The DOD has evolved since the Revolutionary War to the most powerful military on Earth. The chapter examines the history of flight and how it changed defense acquisition in this country, as well as selected histories of computing and space. With the realization that commercial products need to be part of the warfighters' tools, the Other transaction authority is an excellent tool for bringing them from the private sector to the government. The chapter offers a case study in their attempts to bring their invention to the US defense officials of the War Department. Continuing with military acquisition cases, the nation's fortitude would once again be tested in the late nineteenth century in the Spanish-American War.
