DOD excels at prototyping. Getting to production is another story.

The Defense Department is skilled at developing prototypes to test innovations, but speakers at the Defense One Tech Summit told attendees on Tuesday that getting the tech into production remains a challenge.

“We’ve gotten really good at prototyping innovation, however you want to define it. But the challenge is what does it lead to,” said Jerry McGinn, senior fellow of the defense-industrial initiatives group at Center for Strategic and International Studies.

McGinn was joined on a panel at the summit by Kedar Pavgi, director of commercial strategy and operations at the Defense Innovation Unit; and Veronica Daigle, president of the national security practice at investment firm Red Cell Partners.

But McGinn expressed some optimism given the emphasis the Trump administration has put on getting innovation into the hands of warfighters more quickly.

Many of the ideas are not new, but McGinn said they are coalescing in this administration.

“There have been a lot of really exciting changes on acquisition reform,” Daigle said. “Another reason for excitement is we are seeing a lot of additional funding right now.”

Daigle said that while the pieces are in place, the execution needs to move further downstream into the lower levels of the Defense Department.

“When I think about the startup community and new entrants, there are still barriers. There are a lot of compliance challenges,” Daigle said.

Companies do still need authority to operate for software, systems for handling classified information and other certifications for working with DOD.

“Those are very real steps that you have to go through,” she said.

DOD has gotten better at giving off demand signals for where it has gaps that need to be filled, Pavgi said.

“What we really need is to lean forward and take acquisition risk and push projects forward in such a way that we find the best capability and get it to the field as quickly as possible,” Pavgi said.

Part of DIU's role is bridging that gap for companies that have gotten an initial contract but do not know where to go next, Pavgi said.

DIU works with program offices to help promising technologies find a path to production, rather than stalling after the prototype phase.

Still missing from the equation is a way to measure whether innovation is actually taking hold.

“The challenge is what does it lead to?” McGinn asked.

There is no data on how many Other Transaction Authority contracts or Small Business Innovation Research grants convert into actual programs, McGinn.

The market wants to see prototypes move into production

“Demand signal is what we are looking for,” Daigle said. “That gives the market confidence that there is going to be growth.”

Industry wants to bring innovation into DOD.

“They want to help the government harness all of the innovation, but we have to see that you are giving it a chance to grow,” she said.

DOD has a powerful tool for making that happen and the attention on acquisition reform should fuel that movement.

“If the government wants different outcomes, the government has to change how it buys, and that is why the focus on acquisition reform is so exciting for me,” McGinn said.