Episode 2
Presented by HII Mission Technologies
DefenseTech TV presented by HII Mission Technologies examines how defense modernization is shifting from aspiration to execution. Recorded on location at DefenseTech LIVE, this second program in the series focuses on one of the Pentagon’s most urgent priorities: delivering useful capability to warfighters faster, without waiting for traditional processes to catch up to the pace of technology or the threat. Across the conversations, leaders from the Department of the Navy Rapid Capabilities Office, HII Mission Technologies, and the Department of the U.S. Air Force describe a modernization environment where speed depends on clearer problem definition, closer connection to operators, flexible acquisition pathways, open architectures, and the ability to move compute, data, and communications to the tactical edge.
The program makes clear that modernization is not simply a matter of buying newer technology. It requires changing how government and industry work together, how requirements are written, how operational needs are translated into solvable problems, and how emerging tools are tested with the people who will actually use them. Jim Juster explains how the Navy is building rapid capability cells into its acquisition ecosystem to make speed a repeatable practice. Chris Bishop describes why acquisition reform feels different this time, as the department shifts from prescribing requirements to asking industry for solutions to urgent operational problems. Scott Heitmann shows what modernization looks like in practice at the edge, where airmen and guardians are using AI translation, persistent communications, commercial networks, and distributed compute to support mission partners and operate with greater agility.
Juster explains that the Department of the Navy Rapid Capabilities Office works through a headquarters team and rapid capability cells embedded within program acquisition executives. Those cells are critical because they connect rapid capability efforts to the mission expertise, program offices, and acquisition organizations that ultimately have to field successful solutions. The goal is not to create a separate innovation lane that never scales. The goal is to build an ecosystem where every acquisition organization can see its own path to speed.
That ecosystem includes a playbook, a digital platform, and a community of practice. Juster says the Navy is taking approaches that may have worked inside individual program executive offices and scaling them enterprise-wide. The rapid capability cells share ideas, learn from one another, and help make faster execution a normal part of the acquisition process rather than a special exception.
The connection to sailors and Marines is also central. Juster says warfighter engagement and industry outreach are basic responsibilities for any acquisition organization, but the rapid capability approach emphasizes identifying high-priority operational demand signals and routing them to the right acquisition partners. The office helps break large problems into discrete, solvable pieces that can be paired with mature technologies. That supports the idea of an 85% solution: a capability that may not be perfect, but can be fielded quickly enough to matter.
Juster also emphasizes the joint nature of modern operations. The Navy’s rapid capability work must align with partners across the Air Force, Space Force, Army, and broader Department of War mission engineering efforts. Every future fight will be joint, and the Navy’s speed-to-capability work has to contribute to broader operational outcomes.
Key Takeaways
Bishop says the department’s focus is shifting from strict compliance with long-developed requirements to fielding solutions that solve urgent problems. In the past, requirements could take three or four years to develop, followed by several more years of procurement. By the time industry delivered a capability, the original requirement could be five, six, or seven years old. Bishop says that model does not work in a technology environment where capabilities can change every 12 to 18 months, or even faster.
A major part of the shift is the department’s increased interest in commercial systems and modular open systems architecture. Bishop says open architecture allows the government to leverage commercial solutions more quickly up front and sustain them more efficiently over time. It also enables faster upgrades, modifications, and mission package changes. He points to HII’s REMUS unmanned underwater vehicles as an example of a system built with commercial standards and open architecture, allowing customers to adapt mission packages more easily.
The requirements process is also changing. Bishop says the department is increasingly asking industry to solve problems rather than prescribing exactly what to build. That means defining operational needs, accepting some acquisition risk, and fielding an 80% or 85% solution in months rather than waiting years for a perfect answer. The goal is to reduce operational risk by delivering capability sooner.
Looking ahead, Bishop says the department should continue telling industry what problems it needs solved and allowing the industrial base and commercial market to bring forward available solutions. He believes once government and industry experience the benefits of this model, it will be hard to return to the older process.
Key Takeaways
For Heitmann, the story is about translating warfighter needs into fielded capabilities quickly. AI language translation allowed mission partners to hear commands and directions in their native language, changing the way coalition operations can function in theater. Persistent communications and distributed networking allowed teams to operate across spectrum and bandwidth constraints. He says capabilities that once sat safely in large databases or CONUS-based environments are now being pushed farther forward.
Heitmann says closing the loop with airmen and guardians requires getting out of the building and listening directly to operators. He maintains a chat group with hundreds of airmen and guardians across the force, using informal communication to hear about pain points, mission needs, and technology ideas. He says removing rank and creating open channels helps younger airmen share ideas without fear of looking foolish in front of senior leaders.
Technology also helps shrink the distance between the Pentagon and the edge. Teams, video calls, cell phones, and informal digital channels allow Heitmann to communicate more directly with operators in different theaters. That connection helps him bring real stories and requirements back to senior leaders.
The infrastructure challenge is significant. Heitmann points to satellite communications, commercial networks, tactical kits, small-form-factor cloud capabilities, edge compute, and efforts to bring tools such as Maven or large language models into smaller deployable environments. He also says policy must evolve. Secure cloud guidance and assumptions about commercial networks need to change if the Air Force is going to operate in a gray cloud environment where encryption at the edge replaces older models built around physical separation.
Key Takeaways