Innovation Management¶

January 9, 2024
in AI Strategy, Defense Technology, Innovation Management
6 min read

GEARS and the Architecture of Retrofit Autonomy

The Army’s Ground Expeditionary Autonomous Retrofit System (GEARS) is strategically interesting for a reason more durable than the selection of three vendors. It treats autonomy as a capability that can be integrated into an existing fleet rather than as a property of a newly designed vehicle.

That choice shifts the center of gravity from platform replacement to architecture. If autonomy can be added through modular navigation kits, stable interfaces, government-controlled data, and repeatable test evidence, the Army can modernize more vehicles, preserve competition, and improve software without waiting for the lifecycle of the underlying truck.

If those conditions are absent, “retrofit” merely moves vendor lock-in from the vehicle to the autonomy stack.

January 9, 2024
in AI Strategy, Defense Technology, Government Technology, Innovation Management
7 min read

From Endorsement to Evidence: Implementing the Responsible Military AI Declaration

When the United States began organizing the first multinational meeting of states endorsing the Political Declaration on Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy, the central challenge was already clear: agreement on principles is easier than evidence of implementation.

That remains the decisive issue. A declaration can create a community and a common vocabulary. It cannot, by itself, show that military organizations have changed how they design systems, authorize use, train personnel, investigate incidents, or accept risk. The next stage must make responsible practice observable without forcing states into a single legal system, technical architecture, or doctrine.

The right objective is not uniformity. It is comparable accountability.

January 8, 2024
in AI Strategy, Defense Technology, Innovation Management
3 min read

How does the Leopard 1A5 stack up against Russian armor?

Title: “Unveiling the Leopard 1A5: A comparative View Against Russian Armor”

January 8, 2024
in AI Strategy, Defense Technology, Innovation Management
6 min read

GIDE and the Organizational Work of AI Adoption

It is tempting to describe the Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE) as a technical program: connect data, apply analytics and artificial intelligence, and accelerate decisions across the joint force. That description is accurate but insufficient. The more difficult problem GIDE confronts is organizational.

Defense institutions are not short of promising prototypes. They are constrained by the distance between a technical possibility and an operational capability: fragmented authorities, incompatible incentives, acquisition boundaries, security processes, data ownership disputes, uneven skills, and a rational reluctance to alter mission workflows on the strength of a demonstration.

Recurring experiments matter because they can make those dependencies visible and negotiable. Properly structured, GIDE is not only testing technology. It is rehearsing a different way for the Department to build, govern, and absorb digital capability.

January 8, 2024
in AI Strategy, Defense Technology, Innovation Management
6 min read

Autonomous Resupply Is a Logistics-System Redesign

When the U.S. Army and Defense Innovation Unit selected three vendors to develop autonomous navigation kits for Palletized Load System trucks, the obvious story was the vehicle: a heavy tactical truck capable of moving supplies with fewer people exposed to dangerous routes.

The more important story is the logistics system around it.

Autonomy does not remove humans from contested sustainment. It changes where they work, what information they need, how risk is distributed, and which failures become possible. An autonomous resupply vehicle creates value only when mission planning, loading, dispatch, route management, remote supervision, maintenance, cybersecurity, recovery, and receiving operations can treat it as a dependable participant in the distribution network.

January 7, 2024
in AI Strategy, Defense Technology, Innovation Management
6 min read

GIDE’s Real Value Is Learning at Operational Speed

The most important result of the Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE) is not a particular dashboard, algorithm, or data pipeline. It is the creation of a repeatable mechanism through which the Department of Defense can learn what an AI-enabled decision system must become while operators are using it.

That distinction matters. A technology demonstration asks whether a component can work under prepared conditions. An operational learning system asks a harder set of questions: Does the capability improve a consequential mission decision? Can it function across organizations and security boundaries? Do users understand when to trust it? Can the Department identify what failed, change the system, and test the change again before the operational context moves on?

December 14, 2023
in Cybersecurity, Defense Technology, Innovation Management
3 min read

A cyber challenge can build an ecosystem, not just a winner

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has opened registration for the Artificial Intelligence Cyber Challenge (AIxCC), published an exemplar challenge and scoring approach, and added prize funding. Competitors will work toward systems that can find and repair vulnerabilities in widely used software at scale.

Prizes attract teams. The lasting value of a challenge can be the common infrastructure and professional community built around the competition.

November 2, 2023
in Defense Technology, Innovation Management, AI Strategy
7 min read

Militarizing Innovation: The Path to Global Stability

In a recent dialogue with The Economist, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, General Valery Zaluzhny, gave a stark assessment of their ongoing conflict with Russia – they lack the technological advantage to make strides and are at a stalemate with Russia. His reflections resonate with a long-standing consensus among military strategists and geopolitical analysts regarding the critical importance of technological advancement in warfare. The Russo-Ukrainian war, despite the employment of modern military technologies, demonstrates a broader imperative for the West: to win wars and mitigate risks, a nation must relentlessly pursue and attain technological dominance over its adversaries.