BLUF: The National Security Innovation Base
Just this week, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute released its annual report card examining the state of our national security innovation base (NSIB). The assessment, now in its third year, offers an unvarnished look at the progress made and the challenges which lie ahead in modernizing our innovation ecosystem so that it might aptly combat the evolving threat landscape ahead. A few of the key takeaways that we’d like to highlight:
The report calls out a notable gap in the private and public innovation base which stems from a significant decline in federal funding for research and development, as a share of GDP. Our public innovation base has insufficient incentives and bureaucratic hurdles that are slowing the adoption of new technologies and obstructing DoD R&D objectives, the report reads. On a positive note, however, private innovation continues to break into the defense market and scale to top defense primes. Companies like Palantir, Anduril, and SpaceX represent new entrants that continue to drive U.S. innovation.
Another critical challenge which the report highlights is talent acquisition and retention. Although “the aerospace and defense talent base is improving,” the report reads, “significant challenges remain.” Namely, 29% of the current skilled, manufacturing workforce being at or near retirement age and and inability to replace those leaving because of a critical skill gap. “Additionally,” the report says, “the industry’s turnover rate is more than three times the national average.”
Indeed, overall capital and opportunities for investment remain plentiful. The problem is not a lack of money, but rather a lack of places to put it and how to accelerate the acquisition-to-deployment lifecycle. Manufacturing remains at an all time low, and the U.S. is consistently losing top talent to adversaries who poach talent or use the U.S. education system to shore up their own talent.
If you are interesting in receiving our full newsletter every Thursday, subscribe here.
