JUST IN: Austin Emphasizes Need to Help New Tech Cross ‘Valley of Death’
12/4/2021
By Jon Harper
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III
Defense Dept. image
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The Defense Department is “doubling down” on efforts to help small businesses and other innovators bring new technology to the military, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III said Dec. 4 at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California.
Leveraging innovation from small businesses and other organizations that develop cutting edge tech will be key to staying ahead of China in the ongoing strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific region and elsewhere, Austin said during his keynote address at the annual confab, dubbed the “Davos of the defense world.”
The conference brings together Pentagon leaders, defense industry titans, and executives from Silicon Valley and other commercial tech hubs to discuss the most pressing national security issues.
“Innovation lies at the heart of American security,” he said. “Now, huge advances in AI and edge computing and nanotechnology are already underway in America. And much of that right here in California. Nobody innovates better than the United States of America. But we can't take that for granted.”
https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2021/12/4/austin-emphasizes-need-to-help-companies-tech-cross-valley-of-death
