Look to the East

During my tenure at COTS Journal there’s been several Secretaries of Defense and all have very sincerely demonstrated an emphasis on technology. But none in my view have gone the extra mile along those lines as our current SecDef Ashton Carter. One example is his establishment 11 months ago of the DoD’s first, full-time outreach office in Silicon Valley, called the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental. Dubbed DIUx for short, the office is staffed by active-duty and military personnel, plus key people from the Reserves who live in the Valley. Its mission has been to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones while also scouting for new technologies. Its role is to function as a local interface for the DoD.