The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has revealed how it will be spending the $938 million Congress allocated it at the end of March for fiscal year (FY) 2024.
Half of the budget, DIU said, will go towards expanding and accelerating “vital, ongoing projects” like the first tranche of the Replicator initiative: uncrewed system capabilities.
DIU announced last month that the Defense Department (DoD) will spend $300 million in FY24 on the first tranche of capabilities for its Replicator initiative. These include uncrewed surface vehicles, uncrewed aerial systems, and counter-uncrewed aerial systems of various sizes and payloads from several traditional and non-traditional vendors.
In other “strategic areas of project activity,” DIU is focusing 50 percent of the FY24 budget on include “critical initiatives in commercial space, cyber, energy, and human systems, and programs advancing operational logistics capability across contested areas.”
“We are grateful for Congress’ confidence in our mission and are working closely with our partners across the Department to deliver on the imperative facing us to harness the very best of commercially derived technology for our strategic priorities,” said DIU Director Doug Beck in a statement. “DIU’s FY24 spending is concentrated on closing the U.S. military’s most critical operational capability gaps with the focus, speed, and scale required to help us deter major conflict or win if forced to fight.”
A quarter of the budget will be dedicated to initiating “new, critical lines of effort,” DIU said, like counter-unmanned aerial systems, space transport, advanced manufacturing, and critically, cross-cutting software.
“Such advancements will enable integrated and resilient operation of complex, heterogeneous, multidomain autonomous systems in highly challenging current and future battlefield environments,” the agency said.
DIU said that 15 percent of the budget will be allocated towards accelerating work pioneered by other members of the DoD’s innovation community and partnerships with other DoD teammates.
Finally, the remaining 10 percent of spending will be focused on efforts such as the expansion of regional outreach capabilities through the expanding network of Defense Innovation OnRamp Hubs across the country, increased portfolio and cybersecurity support for small and nontraditional vendors, and access to physical and digital ranges for testing and evaluation.
DIU said that, over the next few months it expects to release more than a dozen solicitations for new projects leveraging our Commercial Solutions Opening process.
Liz Young McNally was recently appointed by DIU to lead this effort as its new deputy director for commercial operations.
“My first month at DIU has reinforced my conviction in the commercial tech sector’s strong appetite to partner with DIU and the broader DoD to support the nation’s strategic national security priorities,” said McNally. “I look forward to continuing our engagement with industry to get leading-edge technologies into the hands of our Service members.”
The agency said its FY24 budget plan is derived from the DIU 3.0 strategy released earlier this year. The 3.0 strategy is focused on expanding and accelerating the delivery of commercial technology to the warfighter with the focus, speed, and scale required for strategic effect.
