To attract innovation, the DoD is shifting its procurement process. Instead of issuing rigid, 300-page requirement documents that favor incumbents, it now defines a problem and asks companies to propose their own novel solutions.
The DoD's critical tech priorities, like hypersonics and directed energy, focus on scaling. The goal is to transform expensive, "exquisite" systems into cheaper, mass-producible assets, shifting the cost-benefit analysis of modern warfare.
Emil Michael warns defense tech founders that a prototype is not enough. The Department of War requires a credible plan for mass production. Startups must prove they have mastered the "skilled manufacturing piece" to win large contracts.
US Under Secretary of War Emil Michael reveals that the procurement system was so broken that SpaceX, Anduril, and Palantir all had to sue the Department of War to secure their first contracts, a barrier he is now working to eliminate.
To attract Silicon Valley talent, the DoD is framing two-year government tours as a new form of national service for technologists. The goal is to make it a "badge of honor" that provides valuable experience and credibility upon returning to the private sector.
To create focus within its massive bureaucracy, the Department of War slashed its 14 "critical technology areas" to six. It now treats these priorities as action-oriented "sprints," borrowing a methodology directly from agile software development teams.
To prevent promising startups from failing from funding gaps—the "Valley of Death"—the DoD actively "crowds capital" around them. This stack includes rapid R&D contracts, manufacturing grants, and low-cost loans from a $200B lending authority.
The Department of War's top AI priority is "applied AI." It consciously avoids building its own foundation models, recognizing it cannot compete with private sector investment. Instead, its strategy is to adapt commercial AI for specific defense use cases.
The Department of War's secure "GenAI.mil" tool was developed in just 60 days by a tiger team of ex-Big Tech engineers. It achieved massive adoption, reaching one-third of the 3-million-person organization within a month of launch.