Acquiring Technology for Allies and Partners

Abstract

The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) produced and submitted this paper for the Naval Postgraduate School's 21st Annual Acquisition Research Symposium, May 8–9, 2024, in Monterey, CA, as a discussion draft. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) asked IDA to assist in developing new approaches to providing capabilities to partner nations—particularly commercially available capabilities that could be used by partner nations to exercise self-defense and deterrence vis-à-vis the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia. This paper offers a summary of research, findings, and potential recommendations for how the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) security cooperation community, DSCA, and defense innovation organizations (DIOs) can develop new business strategies for incorporating commercially available capabilities into security assistance activities. The project team’s methodology included expert interviews and literature reviews. The project team conducted structured interviews with government, industry, and IDA experts on commercial technologies and their potential military applications, defense innovation initiatives, and security cooperation programs. The project team completed literature reviews to understand known and potential uses of commercial technologies by partners nation militaries. Finally, through a combined approach of expert interviews and literature reviews, the project team developed a heatmap designed to highlight which commercial technologies may yield the greatest impact on the ability of a partner nation’s military to execute critical tasks. It is the IDA team’s hope that this paper will elicit constructive feedback and insights that can further shape our research and recommendations to DSCA. The 2022 U.S. National Defense Strategy (Austin, 2022) highlights the importance of leveraging commercial technologies and innovation to maintain U.S. warfighting advantages. Further, the use of commercial technologies in the Ukraine war demonstrates their utility and impact in modern conflict. While the DoD is increasingly investing in commercial technologies, there is no strategy for helping partner nations understand potential uses for commercial technologies; identify viable solutions in the commercial market; and acquire, integrate, and use commercial technologies in warfighting and task execution. DSCA’s strategy and processes for enhancing partner nations’ capabilities lean heavily on sales and transfers of hardware, platforms, and systems that were developed for the U.S. military and covered by current and past programs of record. These are often more expensive, harder to maintain, and more difficult to replace than commercially available capabilities.