The U.S. Navy’s Chief Technology Officer, Justin Fanelli, announced today that the service has identified seven enterprise services under its Innovation Adoption Kit (IAK), with additional services currently being evaluated. He did not disclose specifics about the seven selected services.
Speaking at the Defense IT Summit in Arlington, Fanelli said that five months after the IAK’s launch, the Navy has initiated 15 pilot programs to evaluate potential enterprise solutions. Some of those pilots have already transitioned into broader use.
“This time last year, we had zero designated enterprise services. Now we have seven, and we have [more] in the queue, so we’ll have another board to review them, and if the business case or mission case is there, we’re going to designate every month,” Fanelli said.
The IAK, introduced in an October 2025 memo, is intended as a “systematic framework for technology integration.” It provides commanders and program managers with tools to bridge gaps between emerging technologies and operational naval capabilities.
Fanelli said the approach is intended to move pilots into implementation quickly and to reduce isolated network development in favor of shared engineering solutions that enable broader divestments across the service.
The overall goal, Fanelli said, is to avoid redundancy and adopt common solutions across departments.
“It opens the door saying, we don’t need different services or departments doing the same thing, we can just stamp ‘here’s the best,’” he said. “The value case tells its own story and allows us to be data driven … We don’t want different groups doing their own different things. If something is so good, we can’t ignore it. We’re going to designate that.”
Investment horizons; divest, invest paradigm
Central to the kit is an “investment horizons” framework that categorizes technology efforts into four stages: Horizon 3, evaluating technologies through scouting and pilots; Horizon 2, scaling emerging capabilities; Horizon 1, fully deployed technologies designated as enterprise services; and Horizon 0, retiring obsolete systems.
The framework is paired with structured divestments aimed at eliminating redundant or outdated IT systems and applications and redirecting funds toward modernization.
Fanelli also explained that the Navy is focusing on a “divest, invest paradigm,” seeking solutions that can replace multiple existing tools rather than add to what he described as an already crowded portfolio.
“What hasn’t worked is if you say, ‘Hey, we have one more cyber tool or one more logistics tool to throw in the pile of 200,’” he said. “That’s in no one’s best interest. And so, we really are getting better at the divest, invest paradigm and looking for more wins along that board.”