Latest news with #Emeneker
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The trick to fast adaptations for war is a 'Silicon Valley' model that puts companies on the front lines, DoD official says
On changing battlefields, armies have to adapt quickly using the close relationship between industry and troops. The model for that is having companies on the front line getting feedback, DIU's program manager said. He called Silicon Valley a "secret weapon." Modern battlefields change quickly, and the trick to making sure weapons and capabilities keep pace with new threats and challenges is to put companies on the front lines with troops, a Defense Department official said Tuesday. It's a "Silicon Valley" type of model, the DoD official said. US military officials, acquisition team members, and leaders in Washington have long been discussing the need for rapid iteration for future fights, pointing to examples from the war in Ukraine, where an underdog nation on defense built an arsenal on a shoestring warfighting budget and held its own in the tech arms race against the larger invading Russian force. Lessons from this conflict have shown just how quickly some weapons, like different types of drones, are entering the battle and then being thwarted by electronic warfare like signal jamming and other countermeasures. When they run into a problem, the soldiers can relay their concerns and experiences to industry partners, which must react quickly to introduce new solutions. Sometimes, the cycle takes only a matter of weeks. At a Hudson Institute event on building weapons that can be adapted at scale, Defense Innovation Unit Program Manager Trent Emeneker said uncrewed systems had changed warfare like nothing since the introduction of the machine gun during World War I and that the war in Ukraine is showing constant iterative adaptation in both technology and tactics. What's the trick? Emeneker suggested a rather untraditional government contracting approach with more trust in the defense industry and constant, close work on adapting systems. "What we see is the model that works is companies and their engineering teams are embedded directly with the warfighter, on the front lines, at operations, in combat," he explained. "They take that learned feedback, and they send it back, overnight, to the larger engineering team." Then, the solution is brought back to the warfighter. It's not going to be perfect, Emeneker said, but it's going to be better. And if not, they try again until they get it right. "It's the Silicon Valley model of software development: go fast, release, update, and improve," he said. That is a shift in traditional thinking and how defense contractors have worked with the US military on weapons programs in the past. It would be a move away from years of testing complex, exquisite weapons systems before getting them into the hands of troops. There are efforts like that in the US military, but it's not militarywide. A lot of smaller, newer defense companies are embracing these concepts, especially in the uncrewed systems and artificial intelligence spaces. US military and defense industry leaders recognize that for potential future wars against peer adversaries like China, cheap, easily made weapons will be needed. Some companies have told Business Insider the work with soldiers has provided a constant stream of feedback for adapting systems. This type of acquisition and development process is one that is becoming increasingly popular within special operations forces. At the Hudson Institute event, some panelists discussed how this approach could give the US an advantage in a future war with China, which has undergone a massive transformation of its military resources, technologies, and capabilities in recent years. Adapting systems and capabilities to the needs of the US military quickly in a conflict situation depends on the private sector. "Silicon Valley is our secret weapon," Emeneker said. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
13-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
The trick to fast adaptations for war is a 'Silicon Valley' model that puts companies on the front lines, DoD official says
Modern battlefields change quickly, and the trick to making sure weapons and capabilities keep pace with new threats and challenges is to put companies on the front lines with troops, a Defense Department official said Tuesday. It's a "Silicon Valley" type of model, the DoD official said. US military officials, acquisition team members, and leaders in Washington have long been discussing the need for rapid iteration for future fights, pointing to examples from the war in Ukraine, where an underdog nation on defense built an arsenal on a shoestring warfighting budget and held its own in the tech arms race against the larger invading Russian force. Lessons from this conflict have shown just how quickly some weapons, like different types of drones, are entering the battle and then being thwarted by electronic warfare like signal jamming and other countermeasures. When they run into a problem, the soldiers can relay their concerns and experiences to industry partners, which must react quickly to introduce new solutions. Sometimes, the cycle takes only a matter of weeks. At a Hudson Institute event on building weapons that can be adapted at scale, Defense Innovation Unit Program Manager Trent Emeneker said uncrewed systems had changed warfare like nothing since the introduction of the machine gun during World War I and that the war in Ukraine is showing constant iterative adaptation in both technology and tactics. What's the trick? Emeneker suggested a rather untraditional government contracting approach with more trust in the defense industry and constant, close work on adapting systems. "What we see is the model that works is companies and their engineering teams are embedded directly with the warfighter, on the front lines, at operations, in combat," he explained. "They take that learned feedback, and they send it back, overnight, to the larger engineering team." Then, the solution is brought back to the warfighter. It's not going to be perfect, Emeneker said, but it's going to be better. And if not, they try again until they get it right. "It's the Silicon Valley model of software development: go fast, release, update, and improve," he said. That is a shift in traditional thinking and how defense contractors have worked with the US military on weapons programs in the past. It would be a move away from years of testing complex, exquisite weapons systems before getting them into the hands of troops. There are efforts like that in the US military, but it's not militarywide. A lot of smaller, newer defense companies are embracing these concepts, especially in the uncrewed systems and artificial intelligence spaces. US military and defense industry leaders recognize that for potential future wars against peer adversaries like China, cheap, easily made weapons will be needed. Some companies have told Business Insider the work with soldiers has provided a constant stream of feedback for adapting systems. This type of acquisition and development process is one that is becoming increasingly popular within special operations forces. At the Hudson Institute event, some panelists discussed how this approach could give the US an advantage in a future war with China, which has undergone a massive transformation of its military resources, technologies, and capabilities in recent years. Adapting systems and capabilities to the needs of the US military quickly in a conflict situation depends on the private sector. "Silicon Valley is our secret weapon," Emeneker said.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Defense Innovation Unit picks four firms to test one-way drones
The Defense Innovation Unit announced Friday it's awarding contracts to four companies to prototype long-range, single-use drones that can launch quickly, carry a range of payloads and operate in low-bandwidth conditions. The vendors include two U.S. based companies, Dragoon and AeroVironment, and two Ukrainian firms, unnamed due to safety concerns. The Ukrainian firms are each partnered with a U.S. software company, one with Swan and the other with Auterion. All four firms will test demonstrate their capabilities in April and May, and DIU will make its selections soon after. The program, called Artemis, was initiated last year by Congress following demand from operators in U.S. European Command and Indo-Pacific Command for low-cost, expendable drones as well as counter-drone capabilities. As part of a supplemental spending package for Ukraine, lawmakers allotted the U.S Defense Department around $35 million and directed it to identify and test low-cost uncrewed systems that can navigate and communicate through jamming and spoofing attempts. The intent was to move fast and prove that these systems could be ready to field much faster than a traditional, yearslong defense acquisition program. The Pentagon's acquisition and sustainment office delegated the expendable-drone requirement to DIU last August, according to Trent Emeneker, the organization's lead for the effort. In just three months, DIU solicited proposals, selected 16 promising concepts and staged an initial demonstration last December. Nine of the proposed systems were flight-ready and, from those, officials chose four to advance to the prototyping phase. Emeneker told Defense News that DIU picked proposals that took different tacks at addressing the need. While there was a requirement for a flight range of at least 50km, two of the drones have a range of about 100km and the other two can fly more than 1,000km. In its solicitation, DIU said the vehicles should be hard to detect and track, have several pathways for two-way communications and be equipped with mission planning software. It also called for modular systems that can integrate new hardware or software in a matter of hours. The smaller systems DIU is considering cost under $20,000 each, Emeneker said, while the price for the larger drones is closer to $70,000, depending on the cost of things like cameras and other subsystems as well as the number of systems DOD ends up buying. The goal, according to DIU, is 'mass deployment,' though it's not clear how many drones the department will buy. As part of its evaluation, DIU will consider each vendor's production capacity and how quickly it can deliver in large quantities. Emeneker noted that one of the Ukrainian firms is already producing nearly 200 systems each month to support operations against Russian invading forces. Unlike most other projects DIU takes on, Artemis didn't originate with an acquisition office, but was a congressional interest item, so the organization doesn't have a natural transition partner to buy and field the drones it selects. Emeneker said DIU has pitched the project to a number of program offices that are working on programs with similar requirements, but it's been a challenge to get the services to buy in — and disrupt their current work — before the prototypes have flown. 'We have to prove we can do it, and if we can't do it, then I don't blame people for not signing up,' he said. 'But when we prove we can do it — I'm confident we will — we have to get that message out of, 'Hey, this solution works today. It's at the right price point, it is ready, it's combat proven.''
