Reverse Innovation in Global Defense

Even with an annual budget of more than $700B, the DoD cannot afford and is unable to design, develop, and produce all the defense capabilities required to deter or win future conflicts with near peers. It must expand its innovation pipeline and development environment to an international scale. The DoD has major opportunities to rapidly design and demonstrate low-cost defense capabilities with our allies and then scale up the most promising solutions for our warfighters.

The DoD can apply many Reverse Innovation strategies to transform the massive defense bureaucracy and exploit novel solutions. In doing so, it can co-develop solutions with allies, tapping global innovation centers and driving interoperability for the joint fight. This environment, which has greater fiscal constraints but fewer regulatory constraints, will fuel a novel suite of mission-impactful capabilities that the Pentagon would have never imagined on its own.