Summer Myatt
Since 2015, the Defense Innovation Unit has worked to accelerate the adoption of commercial technologies within the United States military. The DIU’s mission focuses on six core technology focus areas: AI/ML, autonomy, cyber and telecommunications, energy, human systems and space.
DIU’s Acting Director Mike Madsen participated in an exclusive video interview with Executive Mosaic to shed light on which tech areas are seeing the most growth and potential as the federal landscape evolves and technology advances.
Hear Mike Madsen speak in person at the Potomac Officers Club’s 9th Annual Defense Research and Development Summit tomorrow, March 23. Register here to save your spot!
“AI and cybersecurity really underpin almost all of the other [focus areas],” said Madsen, a previous Wash100 Award winner, in conversation with Executive Mosaic’s Summer Myatt. “In autonomy, for example, we are using AI elements and we want a cyber secure platform when we’re looking at autonomous systems. There’s a lot of overlay there with AI and cyber, so that’s always going to be critically important to everything that we come up with.”
Madsen said the innovation engine also expects to see continued activity in its autonomy, commercial space and human systems portfolio, especially due to increased adversarial activity in the Indo-Pacific region.
“Autonomy, space and human systems are going to help with those challenges related to contested logistics, for example, or real-time situational awareness into remote areas now, with the commercial overhead imagery that’s available,” Madsen shared.
Ultimately, Madsen predicted that DIU will see the most growth in its newest tech focus area.
“I think our area that we’re going to see the most growth in is our energy portfolio. There are incredible advancements taking place in operational energy, installation energy — when you think about batteries, they’re much, much smaller and much longer lasting in the commercial sector,” Madsen said.
“You can have wearable batteries for a soldier with all the things that need power; power generation and power storage are all under great rates of change. So I think we’re going to continue to see incredible growth and energy — pardon the pun — in our energy portfolio going forward,” he added.
Watch Madsen’s full video interview here to glean insights into DIU’s next chapter of innovation, and be sure to join POC’s 9th Annual Defense R&D Summit tomorrow to hear more from Madsen.
