5 March 2016

SECDEF Carter pushes defense innovation on West Coast trip

http://www.c4isrnet.com/story/military-tech/it/2016/03/02/secdef-carter-pushes-defense-innovation-west-coast-trip/81229586/
Amber Corrin,  March 2, 2016
Defense Secretary Ash Carter continues to forge partnerships with industry, particularly with the innovative technology companies headquartered in Silicon Valley that he hopes the Defense Department can model.

Ahead of a March 2 appearance at the annual RSA conference in San Francisco, Carter announced that he is establishing a Defense Innovation Advisory Board to continue fostering those partnerships. The board will be chaired by Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Carter and Schmidt will select a board comprising 12 leaders in tech innovation, but those members are yet to be named.
Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook told reporters that the initiative underscores Carter’s commitment to innovation and public-private collaboration, according to a DoD release.

“Just as the Defense Business Board provides advice to the department on best business practices from the private sector, the Defense Innovation Advisory Board will provide advice on the best and latest practices in innovation that the department can emulate,” Cook said. “Members will represent a cross-section of America’s most innovative industries, drawing on technical and management expertise from Silicon Valley and beyond.”
Carter’s appearance at RSA was part of a longer West Coast trip to California and Washington state building on his initial efforts in routing Silicon Valley expertise to the Pentagon. Last year, Carter established the Defense Innovation Unit-Experimental, a DoD outpost in Mountain View, California, home to Facebook and Google, among others.

On March 1, Carter said in another San Francisco appearance that his budget for fiscal 2017 takes the long view of U.S. defense and prepares today’s military for tomorrow’s fights. His top evolving challenges, he said, include Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and terrorism.

“We don’t have the luxury of choosing among these challenges, but we do have the ability to set a course for the future: a future that’s uncertain, but will surely be competitive and demanding of America’s leadership, values and military edge,” he said, adding that those concerns are the basis for directing nearly $72 billion to research and development in fiscal 2017.

That money will fund efforts in cybersecurity, advancing undersea capabilities, developing new hypersonic missiles, advances in artificial intelligence, autonomy and robotics and new strategic approaches to preventing and winning conflicts against 21st century threats, according to a DoD release.

The hope is that Silicon Valley, and the rest of industry in general, can help solve some of these massive undertakings.

“Our budget also invests hundreds of millions of dollars next year in building and rebuilding bridges with America’s technology and business community, including here in the Bay Area, because we need a strong partnership to succeed in the 21st century,” Carter said. “We’re making these investments here because our military must always be capable enough to deter even the most advanced future threats in a changing and competitive world … and this means that, just like competitive companies here in the Bay Area, we have to innovate and seize opportunities in everything we do.”

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