Speed to Innovation: How the Navy Is Making Rapid Capability Repeatable

Presented by HII Mission Technologies

Jim Juster, Deputy Director of the Department of the Navy Rapid Capabilities Office, says speed is often misunderstood. When people hear “going fast,” they may assume it requires new authorities, special exceptions, or a hidden acquisition tool that most organizations do not have. Juster argues the opposite. Much of what the Navy needs to move faster is already within its control. The harder task is recognizing those opportunities and making speed a repeatable part of daily acquisition work.

That is the core mission of the Department of the Navy Rapid Capabilities Office. Juster describes the office as a headquarters team connected to rapid capability cells embedded within each program acquisition executive. Those cells are not separate from the acquisition ecosystem. They are organic to the organizations that understand the mission, know the relevant program offices, and ultimately have to help field successful capabilities.

That structure matters because innovation often struggles when it is disconnected from the organizations responsible for deployment. A promising project may move quickly in a special environment, but fail to scale because it does not have a path into the program office or acquisition structure. The Navy’s rapid capability model is designed to avoid that problem. By working with and through rapid capability cells, the office can connect speed, mission expertise, acquisition execution, and fielding from the beginning.

Juster says the Navy is also building a community around this work. Rapid capability cells share a playbook, use a digital platform, and learn from one another. The goal is to make it easier for each acquisition organization to see its own path to speed. What may have started as individual solutions inside specific program executive offices is now being scaled into an enterprise-wide approach.

A key part of that model is the connection to sailors and Marines. Juster says warfighter engagement and industry outreach are not unique to the Rapid Capabilities Office. Every acquisition organization should be talking to customers and suppliers. But the rapid capability approach puts special emphasis on finding high-priority operational demand signals and routing them to the right acquisition partners.

That process requires discipline. Large operational problems must be broken into discrete, solvable pieces. Those pieces can then be paired with mature technologies that are ready enough to move quickly. Juster connects that approach to the concept of the 85% solution. The Navy does not always need to wait for a perfect system that takes years to build. It can often deliver meaningful value by solving a carefully defined part of the problem with technology that is already mature.

The joint environment is also central. Juster says future fights are joint fights, and every service contributes effects to broader operational outcomes. The Navy’s rapid capability work intersects with partners in the Air Force, Space Force, Army, and Department of War mission engineering and integration efforts. The goal is not simply to move Navy projects faster in isolation. It is to contribute to joint operational problems in a way that aligns with the larger force.

Juster’s message is that speed is not magic. It is a discipline. It requires the right ecosystem, the right connection to operators, the right acquisition partners, and the ability to turn big problems into solvable pieces. If the Navy can make that approach routine, speed to innovation becomes less of a slogan and more of a way of doing business.