In November of last year, Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, announced sweeping reforms to the military’s existing acquisition approaches and procedures in an effort that the U.S. Department of War (DoW) anticipates will, “…deliver relevant and effective solutions at scale to address warfighting needs.”
This new Acquisition Transformation Strategy is intended to accomplish three essential outcomes, the most important of which is arguably the first,” field technology and modernize systems at a rate that outpaces our adversaries.”
One way the DoW aims to accomplish this is by making it easier and more cost-effective for innovative technology startups to compete for military contracts. This would make it easier for the military to acquire and deploy existing commercial technologies to the battlefield. However, while that’s a needed and important step towards increasing and accelerating innovation across the DoW, it shouldn’t be the only one.
While adopting commercial technologies from non-traditional contractors would be faster and easier than building new, exquisite solutions to military requirements from scratch, a careful balance must be struck between operational relevance, technical maturity, affordability, and – most importantly – the ability to rapidly manufacture systems at scale.
Sharing is Caring
The military has long claimed that America will never fight a future war alone. Any military operations will invariably include coalition forces and allied nations working in concert with our soldiers in theater. We trust these allies and coalition nations with the lives of American warfighters when we conduct joint operations with them. If applicable to U.S DoW needs, we should also leverage their systems and technologies when it is to our advantage.
Many of these coalition allies and trusted nations have similar military requirements and face challenges similar to those of the DoW and are actively investing in new technology or encouraging industry to rapidly develop systems to meet the need. The technologies, capabilities, and systems that are being developed and manufactured for these trusted allies could and should be put into service to meet the requirements of American warfighters.
In fact, if complementary technologies are identified, modified to meet American requirements, and manufactured domestically, they could reach the battlefield even more rapidly and efficiently than commercial technologies.
This approach of using technologies, systems, and solutions designed and manufactured for allied nations to meet the DoW’s needs and requirements is something that Thales Defense & Security, Inc. (Thales DSI) has been working hard to expand. A key part of Thales DSI’s innovation lies in leveraging the more than $3B in research and development investments by the global corporation, which could be adapted for U.S. government use.
When a promising Thales technology is accepted by the DoW or other government agency, it is then manufactured in the United States, not only to deliver quickly but also to support a robust domestic supply chain.
For example, we developed a thermal sensor to support the targeting capability of an advanced ground vehicle weapons system. The DoW identified a need to increase the targeting range of some of its vehicles and ground platforms, and, with minor tweaking and integration work, Thales DSI was able to implement that sensor into the U.S. Marine Corps Amphibious Assault Vehicle 30MM turret and the U.S. Marine Corps’ MADIS platform. This provided the U.S. Marine Corps with a highly capable option without the time, cost, and hassle of developing a new solution from scratch.
This approach to identifying and adapting technologies and solutions developed and manufactured for allied nations, and integrating them into DoW platforms, will not only help deliver new capabilities to the battlefield more quickly but also help make DoW supply chains more resilient and assured.
Manufacturing At Home or Abroad
Once a solution or technology is identified as meeting a specific need or requirement within the DoW, decisions are made about where it will be manufactured.
In some instances, these solutions and systems simply can’t be manufactured overseas for the DoW. That could be because the original solution was significantly customized or changed to meet DoW requirements and is now a new solution unique to the U.S. that must be manufactured domestically. In these instances, Thales DSI has embraced a model of transitioning manufacturing capability into the United States and making the appropriate investments to rapidly deliver.
For example, Thales DSI has manufacturing facilities that support a broad range of capabilities, including a facility in Clarksburg, Maryland, that manufactures essential communications and munition components and a custom facility in Lemont Furnace, Pennsylvania, which, among other things, assembles state-of-the-art variable depth sonar capability called CAPTAS. CAPTAS was developed by Thales in France and adapted for use by the U.S. Navy for long-range submarine detection; it is now assembled and tested in the United States for the Navy.
We also leverage our advanced manufacturing facilities to assemble helmet-mounted cueing systems for rotary-wing pilots, refurbish the Airborne Low Frequency Sonar for the Navy, and integrate smart fuses for the TOW anti-tank missile—all state-of-the-art global technologies now being leveraged by the United States.
It’s true that the military needs to move faster when evaluating and adopting new technologies – it’s essential if the DoW plans to maintain an advantage over our modern peer and near-peer adversaries.
The plan to make it easier to work with non-traditional contractors and innovative startups is certainly an essential part of making this a reality. Looking to the advanced technologies and sophisticated solutions being developed by our coalition nations and allies, and “pulling through” essential capabilities is another effective way for the DoW to move at the pace of warfare.
By expanding the use of research and development conducted by our coalition allies overseas, the DoW can bring technology to bear more quickly for the warfighter and deliver battle-tested solutions that are guaranteed to meet their specific requirements.
The author, Chris Beauparlant, is the Vice President of System Solutions at Thales DSI.