Will Roper, former assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics and a three-time Wash100 awardee, has listed his five defense investment principles in a piece published by DefenseNews on Wednesday.
According to Roper, archaic regulations, funding gaps and general requirements could endanger military reuse of technologies and negatively impact trust, deals and purchasing power.
“Unknown opportunities can often be game-changers, but they’re hard to source in the ever-changing tech ecosystem. Tech scouting, due diligence and early customer development can flip mission prospects,” said Roper, elaborating on his recommendation for defense investors to source better opportunities.
Roper also called upon these investors to place bets for portfolio returns to prevent what they finance from getting stuck while on the road to deployment. He explained that the “valley of death” could be perpetrated by overspreading development funding.
In his last two points, Roper emphasized the importance of purchasing power and managing for long-term trust by making the defense market appealing and maintaining the Pentagon’s standing among potential private sector partners.
