Getting commercial technology adopted and to the warfighter quickly is the focus of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). The DIU works with partners in the Defense Department (DoD) and across government to prototype, field and scale commercial solutions.
- Mike Madsen, director of strategic engagement at DIU, said he and his team are exploring ways to work more closely with partners and allies – combatant command partners and other countries – to develop technology and get it to the combined forces as quickly as possible.
- Madsen said DIU’s defense engagement team identifies problems DoD is trying to solve and boils them down to problem statements industry can understand, while a commercial engagement team works with the private sector to understand investments in leading-edge technology development and determine if potential solutions are out there.
- He said the fiscal 2021 report shows that former Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s experiment – creating DIU to lower barriers to entry in the defense marketplace – is working.
