US War Dept, CIA's In-Q-Tel to fast-track tech for battlefield

The US Department of War has partnered with the CIA's venture fund, In-Q-Tel, to accelerate the transition of commercial technologies to the battlefield, leveraging the fund's tech-scouting network to speed up deployment to the warfighter.

The US Department of War’s Critical Technologies Office has partnered with CIA’s (Central Intelligence Agency) venture fund In-Q-Tel (IQT) to accelerate the transition of commercial technologies to battlefield use, as per a statement by the Department.

With this partnership, the department’s research and engineering enterprise will gain access to In-Q-Tel’s global technology-scouting network and portfolio of early-stage companies, to accelerate the transition and deployment of mature commercial technologies from non-traditional companies to the warfighter.

Details of the Partnership

“The Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering (R&E), through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies (CT), has announced an agreement to partner with the Central Intelligence Agency and In-Q-Tel (IQT), a not-for-profit strategic investor that has served the national security community since 1999,” the Department said via its official X account.

Under the collaboration, In-Q-Tel will use its venture capital model to identify and evaluate early-stage commercial technologies that meet the department’s operational requirements. “By combining CT's strategic transition pathways with IQT's deep-tech scouting infrastructure, the partnership aims to significantly de-risk the integration of commercial hardware and software for national security applications, signaling to the commercial tech sector that the Department of War is open for business,” the statement read.

Six Critical Technology Areas

Apart from this, the US Department of War has identified six critical technology areas (CTAs) for priority investment and technology transition: applied artificial intelligence, biomanufacturing, contested logistics technologies, quantum and battlefield information dominance, scaled directed energy, and scaled hypersonics.

Under this partnership, In-Q-Tel will identify promising technologies and conduct technical due diligence across these areas and related enabling technologies, while the department will identify sponsors and pathways to transition validated technologies into use. Joint pilot programs will begin in the coming weeks to target immediate battlefield bottlenecks.

A Shift in Posture

Commenting on the development, Michael Dodd, Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies said, “In a contested global threat environment, technological superiority will not be determined by who invents a capability first, but by who delivers it to the warfighter fastest.”

“The Department is fundamentally shifting its posture: we are moving from acting solely as a long-cycle technology developer to operating as an agile, credible, and rapid customer for America's most innovative non-traditional performers. Our partnership with In-Q-Tel eliminates bureaucratic friction across our six CTAs. Over the next 12 months, our benchmark for success is simple and unambiguous: moving validated commercial prototypes out of the lab and into active operational field evaluations with our combatant commands,” he added. (ANI)

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