Will Roper, then assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, speaks during a 2019 conference at National Harbor, Md. (Staff)

 Will Roper, then assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, speaks during a 2019 conference at National Harbor, Md. (Staff)

As the department seeks to work more with new entrants to the defense market, Hermeus’ Shore said it’s important that engagement moves beyond meetings and small contracts to recognizing and valuing innovation and integrating it at scale. It may also mean changing processes to make it easier for startups to compete with more traditional defense contractors.

“There’s just this inherent tension in the department, still, of push versus pull in the way the department buys technology, the way the department originates an idea and the way the department thinks about competition,” he said. “I don’t think the department has yet figured out how to commit to actually bear-hugging new technology sets and working with them.”

Ursa Major’s Laurienti noted that while it’s easier for the Defense Department to leverage commercial capabilities in space, where there’s an existing market, doing that within the hypersonics portfolio requires some creative thinking on the government’s part.

“Just getting DoD to wrap their heads around — ‘This company has X, Y and Z capabilities. Let’s pull that thread a little bit’ — that’ll be game-changing for how the department develops new capabilities very quickly,” he said.

Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.