Defense Innovation Board calls on DOD to reorganize, launch new undersecretariat
Facing confusion from industry, allies and partners about how they can best engage with military components and understand contractual and decision-making structures, the Defense Innovation Board is calling on Pentagon leadership to launch an internal reorganization and establish a new undersecretariat focused on international industrial cooperation.
During their open meeting on Wednesday, members of the panel agreed upon those and other recommendations, based on a study they were tasked with delivering, called Optimizing Innovation Cooperation with Allies and Partners.
“Today, the DoD does not have a central standing mechanism for interfacing with allies, partners, and international organizations, resulting in a state of considerable fragmentation, duplication, and lack of coordination across workstreams. Moreover, we observed that DoD senior leaders are stretched thin by the many duties pressed upon them, and that international defense industrial cooperation is often relegated in the face of competing priorities. The Department’s principals responsible for international cooperation accordingly struggle to devote an adequate level of attention, care, and focus to addressing the barriers and risks facing the international industrial base,” the report stated.
At Wednesday’s meeting, board member Charles Phillips said: “We talked to a lot of different organizations to get a sense of how it’s working today. Other countries [like] Norway, the U.K., Ukraine, even our allies, and … some startups trying to work with the DOD from outside of the U.S. and want to find out how to work with us. So, the number one issue we found is that there’s no pathway for working with the DOD if you’re coming from another country. No one knows how it works. It’s too fragmented and there’s a lot of different certifications and requirements.”