Speed of innovation will be the deciding factor on today’s battlefields. The technology soldiers need to survive and win cannot take years to field. For generations, one of the Army’s greatest challenges has been closing the distance between the soldier who identifies a need and the acquisition system responsible for delivering the solution.
At Fort Bragg, the XVIII Airborne Corps is attacking that problem head on.
Colonel Tom Monaghan, has a mission - build the Joint Innovation Outpost - putting soldiers, acquisition professionals, industry, funding, testing, and Army program offices together to accelerate the development of solutions.
No red tape. No delays. No endless discussion about contract vehicles. Just lethality, survivability, and mobility.
Colonel Monaghan joins Fran Racioppi to discuss the theory behind the JIOP, Dragon’s Lair, artificial intelligence, and why some of the Army’s best innovations are coming directly from soldiers closest to the problem; including counter-drone and unmanned systems.
For Monaghan, the leadership philosophy behind that mission is just as important as the technology: provide clarity, listen to the soldier, and solve problems. The JIOP is proving that acquisition does not always have to begin thousands of miles from the operational force. Sometimes the person with the answer is already standing on the drop zone, sitting inside the vehicle, or carrying the equipment that needs to change.
Innovate. Accelerate. Dominate. The Joint Innovation Outpost is building a model designed to ensure that when America's soldiers identify the battlefield need, the Army can move fast enough to solve it.
HIGHLIGHTS:
00:00 Introduction
1:58 Welcome to The Jedburgh Podcast
3:10 Building the Joint Innovation Outpost
5:52 Closing the Gap
8:10 Army Acquisition
12:11 Soldier-Driven Innovation
16:57 Prioritizing Battlefield Innovation
17:01 The Immediate Response Force
18:46 Dragon’s Lair and Accelerating New Ideas
19:22 Why Army Innovation Takes So Long
21:02 The Smartest Generation of Soldiers
23:28 Turning Soldier Ideas Into Battlefield Solutions
26:15 Artificial Intelligence and Human Decision-Making
27:28 Cost, Technology and Scalability
31:14 Innovate, Accelerate, Dominate
32:12 Measuring the JIOP’s Success
33:09 The Future of Army Innovation
34:25 Solving Problems
35:04 Three Things
Quotes
- “We concentrate on anything that improves soldier lethality, survivability, mobility.”
- “We imagine a world where we close that time gap. We actually get rid of that valley of death.”
- “The normal process that I just talked about, that should have taken three to five years.”
- “There’s always a human in the loop.”
- “No piece of software is going to answer every question available.”
- “From an acquisition perspective, we always say cost, schedule, and performance. You never get all three.”
- “Solve problems. Support the soldier. Get them what they need.”
- “There’s nothing I can’t fix in five minutes with a phone call that you mess up. So just go out there and try.”
- “My superpower as a leader is to provide clarity.”
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