It has become fashionable to lament the Department of Defense’s innovation challenges. It is true that complex weapons systems like advanced fighters take decades to develop, but the government’s bureaucracy has stifled innovation and made even routine purchases for office furniture difficult and cumbersome. The Pentagon has struggled to buy and adapt commercial cloud technology and integrate artificial intelligence, and many commentators fear that America’s best and brightest have little inclination to work in national security.
During the Cold War, the Department of Defense fed the private sector with innovative technologies like the Internet, the global positioning system, and even LED lights, and it quickly developed and fielded new weapon systems. In the 1950s, the Air Force fielded six new models of fighter aircraft in less than a decade. Today, the United States’ most modern fighter, the F-35, simultaneously exists in squadrons around the world, on the assembly line, and in the Smithsonian. Where has the Pentagon’s innovation prowess gone?
Congress, the White House, and the Pentagon have each contributed to these innovation challenges in recent decades. At…
