Kathleen Hicks: Innovation Remains Vital in Ensuring US Remains Global Leader

A Department of Defense official said innovation remains a vital part of ensuring the U.S. armed forces remain a global leader.

Kathleen Hicks, deputy secretary of defense and a past Potomac Officers Club event speaker, said that while China has been working to get ahead of the U.S., it can never copy American ingenuity, the ability to think freely, innovate and change the landscape.

The DOD was the biggest investor in new technologies until the 1970s when the private sector took over. However, the Pentagon still allocates a significant amount of its budget to help organizations innovate, with $145 billion requested for research and development in 2024, Defense .gov reported.

Speaking at the American Dynamism Summit held in Washington on Wednesday, Hicks discussed the Defense Department’s strategies to drive innovation, including having novel operational concepts for joint warfare.

The Pentagon has always sought to drive innovation in the defense sector. In 2023, it sought statutory authority from Congress to financially contribute to NATO’s Defense Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic.