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Please join the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security for a public conversation on “Maintaining the US Competitive Edge: Innovating the Business Model of Defense,” featuring Anduril Co-Founder and CEO Brian Schimpf, Maxar President and CEO Daniel Jablonsky, and Dr. Melissa Flagg, Senior Fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology of Georgetown University. This latest event in Forward Defense’s Captains of Industry Series will take place on Wednesday, February 10, 2021 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. EST, and will be held online via Zoom. To receive the Zoom link, please click the REGISTER button above.

The geopolitical and technological rise of China is resetting the Pentagon’s priorities and approach to sustaining military competitive advantages. To adapt its warfighting posture, the United States will rely increasingly on dual-use technologies—artificial intelligence, machine learning, advanced sensors, etc.—under development in the commercial sector, together with its affinity for disruptive business models—including as-a-service, by-subscription, open-innovation, among others. However, the processes by which the Pentagon acquires new technologies and develops them into weapons systems present bureaucratic and cultural barriers to the adoption of these technologies and business models. How can the Department of Defense (DoD) adapt acquisition practices to improve its access to the US innovation base? And how can industry, both incumbents and entrants, facilitate these adaptations? 

To illuminate these challenges are two chief executives of companies that have set out to address them: 

Moderated by

With welcome remarks by

We hope you can join us for what promises to be an important and timely discussion. To receive the Zoom link, please complete the registration form below. 

The Captains of Industry Series is a platform for senior defense executives to address the public interests their companies serve and the public policies that shape their markets. By engaging the perspective of business leaders about issues at the interface of defense ministries and industries, the series aims to cultivate a constituency for practical solutions to these challenges.

Miss the event? Read the recap

Event Recap

Feb 16, 2021

Keeping pace with the competition: How the Pentagon can incentivize innovation at the speed of relevance

By Julia Siegel

Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf, Maxar CEO Dan Jablonsky, Atlantic Council Nonresident Senior Fellow Dr. Melissa Flagg, and NDIA Chairman MajGen Arnold Punaro joined Forward Defense for a Captains of Industry discussion on how the Department of Defense can adapt acquisition practices to improve its access to the US innovation base.

China Defense Industry
Forward Defense

Forward Defense, housed within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, generates ideas and connects stakeholders in the defense ecosystem to promote an enduring military advantage for the United States, its allies, and partners. Our work identifies the defense strategies, capabilities, and resources the United States needs to deter and, if necessary, prevail in future conflict.