Heidi Shyu: Pentagon to Push Industry Collaboration in Space Domain With New Initiative

Heidi Shyu, undersecretary for research and engineering at the Department of Defense and a 2023 Wash100 awardee, said that DOD will introduce a new “effort” to facilitate industry collaboration in bringing commercial space platforms to the U.S. warfighter mission, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

“The goal of this effort is to incorporate [the] incredible innovation system of the commercial space economy and link them into our joint warfighting concepts to access and accelerate capability adoption,” Shyu, a 2023 Wash100 awardee, said Tuesday at a symposium.

Lindsay Millard, principal director for space within the office of USD for R&E, will lead the initiative, which Shyu said will help the department understand how commercial enterprise assess risk and advance tech adoption, how to address barriers between government and industry and how to rapidly deploy commercial technologies in support of the U.S. government and its allies.

“We need to take advantage of the diversity of novel ideas and products available from the commercial sector to complement the DoD space and deliver capabilities to our warfighter at a far quicker pace,” added Shyu.

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