Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit DIUx to get Emergency Funds

Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx,) the Department of Defense’s outreach office to Silicon Valley, needs emergency funding to keep key programs operating, and DoD is poised to grant their request, Defense News reports.

The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Paul Selva, said Tuesday that DIUx chief Raj Shah had requested additional funding and that a fiscal reprogramming request is being prepared to keep DIUx afloat.

œWe put tremendous demands on the defense experimental unit in the programs they have working for us, said Selva. œWe have a reprogramming proposal that is in staff as we speak that will address the balance of their requirements for this fiscal year.

The DIUx program that needed funds appears to be one which works with small, commercial space companies to build cheaper radar-imaging satellites, reports Defense News.

DIUx was created in May 2015 by then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter to reach out to commercial technology companies in Silicon Valley. The California office opened in August 2015, and other offices have opened in Austin, Texas, and Boston, Massachusetts. It has entered into 25 agreements for a total value of $48.4 million, 22 with non-traditional defense firms.

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