Defense Innovation Unit, Actions Needed to Assess Progress and Further Enhance Collaboration , February 27 , 2025
Defense Innovation Unit, Actions Needed to Assess Progress and Further Enhance Collaboration , February 27 , 2025
From the report: “The Department of Defense (DOD) aims to keep pace with foreign adversaries by quickly adopting commercial technologies. DOD leaders expressed concern that it is not doing so at the speed and scale needed. DOD created the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) in 2015 to take on these long-standing challenges. In 2023 it announced changes (DIU 3.0) to increase its effectiveness.
DIU established a flexible award process to show that commercial technology can quickly deliver capabilities to the warfighter and is now shifting its focus under DIU 3.0 to address DOD’s most critical operational needs. From fiscal years 2016 through 2023, DIU made 450 awards to companies to develop prototypes. DIU reported that 51 percent of completed prototypes transitioned to production. With its new focus, DIU officials said they will use its established process to award prototype agreements that can deliver technologies at scale to meet DOD’s most critical needs. DIU will also increasingly work with military services and combatant commands.”
Authors - Government Accountability Office (GAO)Related Resources
