International Innovation Initiatives

The International Innovation Initiatives program, managed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, is a research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) line item designed to strengthen the United States' strategic advantages through international defense innovation partnerships. The program's overarching goals are to deter strategic attacks against the U.S. and its allies, deter aggression while preparing to prevail in conflict, and build enduring advantages for the future Joint Force. It accomplishes this by supporting collaborative technology development and operational experimentation with key international partners, focusing on advanced technology areas critical to U.S. national security.

AUKUS is a major component of this program, representing a trilateral partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The primary objective of AUKUS is to deepen defense capability and technological cooperation among the three nations, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. This is achieved through joint development, production, and sustainment of advanced military capabilities, with a focus on increasing interoperability, information sharing, and integrated deterrence.

Projects under AUKUS include the AUKUS Maritime Autonomy Experimentation and Exercise Series, which drives technical integration of emerging trilateral capabilities, and the development of resilient autonomous and artificial intelligence technologies for coalition operations. Specific initiatives include the establishment of a multi-classification level collaborative computing environment to facilitate secure information sharing and project management across the three nations. The program also supports the Maritime Digital Experimentation Federation, a trilateral experimentation network for virtual and live interoperability testing of uncrewed autonomous systems.

AUKUS further supports technical evaluations, hypersonic strike weapons development, and the creation of common architectures and standards to enhance coalition operations. Projects are selected through a merit-based process involving DoD components, industry, and academia, with a strong emphasis on transitioning technologies to operational use.

DIANA (Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic) is another key line item, supporting NATO's efforts to leverage dual-use technological advances across allied innovation centers. The goal of DIANA is to accelerate the development, testing, and fielding of security technology solutions that address evolving threats and operational requirements. DIANA specifically targets non-traditional business partners and dual-use technologies with commercial and defense applications, enabling rapid adoption into U.S. and allied defense programs.

The program includes support for technology maturation, mission and operational analysis, due diligence assessment, testing, and productization to ensure that promising solutions are viable, secure, and ready for operational deployment. DIANA also aims to introduce new U.S. industries to European markets and facilitate the integration of successful NATO DIANA challenge solutions into the U.S. industrial base. The initiative supports the evaluation and maturation of technologies identified through NATO challenges, with a focus on enhancing coalition communications, data exchange, and the operational impact of robotic and autonomous systems.

The program's acquisition strategy emphasizes efficient cooperation and transition pathways, including technology upgrades for current platforms, informing requirements for future systems, and direct procurement. The International S&T Engagement Initiatives line item is designed to incentivize DoD components and military services to expand science and technology cooperation with both existing and new international partners. This initiative supports exploratory workshops, operationally focused cooperative projects, and participation in OSD-led activities with countries such as Israel, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and India.

The objective is to identify and pursue collaborative opportunities in critical technology areas, transition cutting-edge solutions to operational use, and address shared operational challenges through joint development and experimentation. International S&T Engagement Initiatives also focus on advancing edge capabilities in intelligence autonomous systems, co-developing distributed AI architectures for challenging environments, and creating interoperable simulation infrastructure for retraining autonomous systems. Proposals for new projects are solicited from DoD components and selected through a merit-based process aligned with OUSD(R&E) priorities.