Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has announced the three new members of a board that will work to facilitate a “culture of innovation†in the areas of technology, people and operations across the Defense Department, DoD News reported Friday.Carter told Defense One Tech Summit attendees in Washington that retired Navy Adm. William McRaven, former head of the U.S. Special Operations Command; innovation historian Walter Isaacson; and Reid Hoffman, chief of LinkedIn; will join the Defense Innovation Board that DoD launched in March.
Jim Garamone writes Eric Schmidt, executive chairman at Google parent company Alphabet, serves as chairman of the board.
Carter cited the efforts of the department’s strategic capabilities office to redevelop existing military systems to perform new functions, including the development of an arsenal plane as well as microdrones that can be deployed through fighter jets.
DoD has begun to work with coders from Google, Shopify, Palantir and other firms through the Defense Digital Service and plans to appoint a chief recruiting officer who will look for executives to serve in civilian leadership positions, Carter said during the summit.
He also mentioned the department’s Defense Innovation Unit Experimental startup in Silicon Valley, career intermission and fellowship initiatives for service personnel and Hack the Pentagon cybersecurity pilot program, Garamone reports.
