Jane Edwards
Steve Escaravage of Booz Allen Hamilton and Adam Hammer of Roadrunner Venture Studios said the Department of Defense should harness the power of capital markets and support dual-use technology companies to advance the development of emerging tech platforms to maintain its competitive edge amid the country’s strategic competition with China.
Escaravage, a two-time Wash100 awardee, and Hammer wrote in an opinion piece published Wednesday in C4ISRNET that there are three steps DOD should take to push tech development efforts and one is using the Advanced Market Commitments to meet future demand for tech systems that are critical to national security.
“For the Pentagon, AMCs could come in the form of spending minimums on certain crucial technologies, especially expensive hardware like quantum computing, over the next several years,” they noted.
DOD should support dual-use tech startups by guaranteeing loans and establish a trusted clearinghouse for investors, commercial partners and creditors by broadening the Trusted Capital Marketplace Initiative’s mandate.
According to Hammer and Escaravage, having such a trusted network could help improve collaboration between dual-use startups and established defense contractors, facilitate sharing of due diligence with acquisition officers and inform the government’s major purchases.
Escaravage is an executive vice president within Booz Allen’s global defense business and Hammer is co-founder and president of Roadrunner Venture Studios and a counselor at Schmidt Futures. The two executives are serving as industry commissioners on the Atlantic Council’s Commission on Defense Innovation Adoption.
