The U.S. Department of Defense, referred to by the Trump administration as the U.S. Department of War, announced an agreement last week with the Central Intelligence Agency and In-Q-Tel to quickly move technology solutions to the warfighter.
Under the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering, and through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies, the department has agreed to work with the CIA and IQT to give the department’s research and engineering division access to IQT’s global technology-scouting platform and its portfolio of early-stage companies, with the goal of compressing the timeline to transition and rapidly field commercial solutions from non-traditional performers. IQT is a non-profit strategic investor serving the national security community since 1999.
“In a contested global threat environment, technological superiority will not be determined by who invents a capability first, but by who delivers it to the warfighter fastest. The department is fundamentally shifting its posture: we are moving from acting solely as a long-cycle technology developer to operating as an agile, credible, and rapid customer for America’s most innovative non-traditional performers. Our partnership with In-Q-Tel eliminates bureaucratic friction across our six CTAs. Over the next 12 months, our benchmark for success is simple and unambiguous: moving validated commercial prototypes out of the lab and into active operational field evaluations with our combatant commands,” Michael Dodd, assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies, said.
Officials said the Defense Department has mandated six critical technology areas to focus on applied artificial intelligence, biomanufacturing, contested logistics technologies, quantum and battlefield information dominance, scaled directed energy, and scaled hypersonics. Under the agreement, IQT will conduct the technology scouting and due diligence across all six CTAs, while the department identifies transition sponsors and pathways for validated technologies.