Defense innovation and acquisition reform: industry view
January 29, 2025
Today, the Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on defense innovation and acquisition reform. The discussion echoed many of the points that AUVSI has been making, including my remarks at AUVSI Defense last fall, about how the U.S. must build an Uncrewed Arsenal, for Democracy.
Our first key takeaway from today’s hearing is that Congress recognizes these opportunities and challenges — both the critical importance of innovative defense technologies and that acquisition reform is needed to make progress in modernizing the force. Now we need action.
In opening comments, Chairman Wicker noted that while there has been some success to in this area so far, most of the work lies ahead – and is urgent. “We need a game-changer, and we need it right now,” he stated. He also identified that the strong tech sector and entrepreneurial spirit in the U.S. are core advantages that DoD needs to harness. His recently introduced FORGED Act, which AUVSI is evaluating closely, seeks to fix our defense acquisition system, which we all agree is not serving our warfighters, or the American taxpayer, well today.
We also want to emphasize remarks from Nathan Diller, CEO of Divergent Industries, an AUVSI member company, about how a nation that does not manufacture advanced technologies cannot lead in this sector. Nate advocated in his testimony for the U.S. to turn its software advantage into a hardware manufacturing advantage and to rapidly field a hedge portfolio of software-driven hardware. AUVSI agrees.
Of note, Nate was also instrumental in the recent report on breakthroughs in defense innovation, which, like AUVSI, calls for the U.S. to be restored as a global manufacturing powerhouse.
Our collective goal must be to ensure that the U.S. remains at the forefront of autonomous technologies and that the demand signal is there for private capital to invest in building the industrial base that is needed now, and that will be required in the immediate future. AUVSI is calling on DoD to place large scale orders in 2025 which will enable innovative companies among our membership to build the supply chains, workforce, and production capacity needed to scale to ensure the U.S. can fight and win tonight.
