Kathleen Hicks Says DOD Works to Accelerate Combat-Credible Capability Deployment to US Forces

Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of the Department of Defense and a 2024 Wash100 Award recipient, said the Pentagon had taken a warfighter-centric approach to innovation to enable the rapid delivery of combat capabilities to U.S. forces worldwide.

“Along the way, we’ve never wavered from our ultimate objective: delivering safe and reliable, combat-credible capabilities at speed and scale to America’s warfighters — so they can deter aggression and win if called to fight,” Hicks shared during a recent summit in Washington, D.C.

To support this goal, Hicks underscored that DOD seeks to implement a fast-moving cycle to speed up the deployment of selected warfighting capabilities “to the right people at the right time.”

Hicks described the process as “a warfighter-defined investment funnel” incorporating new operational concepts, prototyping and experimentation, rapid acquisition pathways, opportunities to enter the market and a more level playing field.

“To bridge the lab-to-prototype and prototype-to-scale valleys of death, we’re using more flexible acquisition pathways for rapid prototyping, rapid fielding and software development,” Hicks said.

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