Innovation Does Not March--It Calls Cadence.

• Author: Ragan, Ray K.
• Position: Viewpoint

* "No answers exist in these walls." This is a mantra taught in the National Science Foundation's Innovation Corps, or I-Corps. The statement seems simple, but its gravity is profound. The I-Corps program teaches academics and entrepreneurs about lean startup techniques and how they can be used to de-risk a startup long before years and millions of dollars are spent.

The lessons from I-Corps along with many others from the lean startup community are prescriptive for modern defense innovation and acquisition, and may provide insights for the Army and the broader military acquisition ecosystem.

Perhaps the first lesson is that innovation should solve a problem. A cynical view might suggest that deploying a new weapon system has nothing to do with a Silicon Valley lean startup method. One might argue that weapon systems hold to their own unique ecosystems and purpose. However, abstract away all the complicating factors and the naked problem remains. The magic of modern innovation frameworks reveals itself when one views the weapon system as a response to a customer problem, which in this case happens to be a military problem.

Given the recent surprise launch of the Chinese hypersonic delivery platform, it is with a sense of irony that in the technology innovation ecosystem, a breakout success is called "escape velocity." However, this term based on the U.S. lunar program suggests the mindset in the civilian innovation ecosystem.

Escape velocity is the concept that the innovation, either through its merit or execution, cannot be matched by market forces, competitors, or otherwise. This approach allows for groundbreaking innovation, the revolutions in innovation that are "capital-I innovation" and give such a profound advantage that the competition sees it as insurmountable.

Now consider a specific application such as long-range precision artillery fire. The customer, the battlespace owner, has several problems to solve. It needs to effectively engage the adversary earlier and before the adversary can engage the battlespace owner. Further, the owner needs precision, owing to the economy of force principle. This problem set is not new. Rather it is one any commander would be familiar with. For example, Mehmed the Conqueror would have faced it as he aimed his large artillery at the fortified walls of Constantinople. This advent represented a capital-I Innovation: reliable fortification defeat by artillery.

Over time, innovators and foundries met...