Quickly Scaling a Hedge Strategy
By E. John Teichert
January 31, 2024
U.S. Army
The 2024 House authorization and appropriation bills for the Department of Defense contain language that is a welcome sight. In a section entitled “Accelerating Change with a Near-Term Hedge,” Congress requires a renewed emphasis on innovation stemming from the urgent threats clearly visible in Eastern Europe and the Western Pacific. The new requirements include a better-funded Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), the establishment of and refocus on cutting-edge service-level innovation organizations creatively called NIFEs (Non-traditional Innovation Fielding Enterprises), and a regular reporting regimen to maintain accountability.
Urgency and operational relevance are the cornerstones of this new requirement, with statements boldly encouraging a willingness to accept calculated risk to enable operationally relevant speed. The language clearly states that “the metric for success is speed to fielding affordable, operationally relevant capability.” Furthermore, those involved in this strategy “must be focused on rapidly fielding solutions at scale to operationally relevant problems.”
The language guiding DIU and the NIFEs directs a DoD focus outside the normal systems, structures, and processes that lumber along while sapping the vitality of our nation’s strategic competitiveness against looming threats. It rightfully vectors the DoD to “non-traditional sources and non-traditional solutions” including the use of private capital and the incorporation of a broader pool of talent while delivering an expanded economic advantage in key technologies. It is a clarion call to utilize massive national advantages instead of being bound by the tired, traditional shackles that are causing the nation to fall behind.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2024/01/31/quickly_scaling_a_hedge_strategy_1008626.html
