ABSTRACT
As a prolific creator and consumer of technological innovation, the ambitions and capabilities of the defense sector are unparalleled. Long-term secular changes in the patterns of global technological research and development have critically impacted how the defense sector conceives, develops, and absorbs new technologies. In recent decades, the locus of global technological research has shifted from government and defense labs to private industry, the venture economy, and to distributed private individuals and groups. This democratization of advanced technology R&D has multiplied the speed and diversity with which new solutions are created and deployed, and is in stark contrast to the closed and proprietary models that have been preferred in the past. This has forced key players in the defense ecosystem to reconsider their approaches to innovation, including a renewed emphasis on collaboration and co-development, open innovation strategies, and spurring entrepreneurial efforts from within.
In this chapter, we specifically review how the US Department of Defense has historically approached technological innovation as a construct, and how recent developments are forcing it to adopt a more open and inclusive posture as it seeks to absorb external innovations. We describe how the technology offset programs pursued by the US Department of Defense have been re-imagined to create cutting-edge capabilities in a variety of technological domains. Originally instituted to address specific threats from adversaries, these efforts now seek to advance the development of several crucial technological domains. To this end, we propose a set of key capabilities that need to be further developed to strengthen the force and vitality of defense innovation programs, in order to meet the threats of the future.
