45 percent of AAL’s completed projects have “transitioned” into regular DoD programs, but AAL admits others “end up in the valley of death due to factors external to the project, even if the project meets all milestones and the technology solves the military problem.”
The Army wants lightweight power solutions that can sustain dismounted soldiers for days at a time.
Knowing when to build on commercial systems and when to develop something new can be the difference between parity and information dominance.
Without a soldier in the driver's seat, the Army wants high-tech sensors to sound the alarm when something is wrong, or even predict when it will be.
The notice is part of a broader Army push to acquire assured PNT solutions for soldiers on the future battlefield.
The current approach "is more akin to innovation tourism—with the DoD sampling the local fare of the United States’ various tech hubs—than a bona fide strategy for bringing emerging technologies into the department," the report notes.
Six small companies got $100,000 awards to do an eight-week sprint on ways to move the Army to electric power. Meanwhile, an academic study denounced the Army’s plan for mobile nuclear reactors.
The GPS network continues to prove its unmatched reliability, and it’s only getting stronger.
Six companies got $150,000 Field Artillery Autonomous Resupply contracts to study everything from exoskeletons that strengthen human ammo handlers to robots that might replace them.
“I get really irritated when I’m in the audience and I hear ‘startup, startup, startup,'” Army Futures Command's chief innovation officer said this morning at the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). “Startups are not the only source of ideas."