Innovation that enhances warfighter capabilities is critically important to the U.S. Department of War, which has a generational opportunity to better align innovation with operational needs. In this report, RAND researchers examine how defense innovation can be effectively integrated into the joint requirements system and identify how lessons from defense innovation organizations can inform and improve how requirements are developed and matured.

Integrating Innovation into U.S. Department of War Requirements Reform

Jim Mignano, Ryan Consaul, Megan McKernan, Stephen M. Worman, Heidi Peters, John Hoehn, Audrey F. Cisneros

ResearchPublished Mar 25, 2026

Innovation that enhances warfighter capabilities is critically important to the U.S. Department of War (DOW). As DOW modernizes its joint requirements development system, which has long been criticized as cumbersome, antiquated, and an impediment to U.S. national security, the department has a generational opportunity to better align defense innovation with operational needs. In this report, RAND researchers examine how defense innovation can be effectively integrated into the reformed joint requirements system and identify how lessons from defense innovation organizations can inform and improve how requirements are developed and matured.

Key Findings

  • Numerous organizations pursue innovation under different authorities and incentives, creating redundancy, unclear handoffs, and uneven outcomes.
  • The central policy tension is that innovation organizations need speed and autonomy to experiment, but without structured governance interfaces, their products might not yield enduring joint capability.
  • A separate-but-connected governance model can resolve this central policy tension by preserving agility while enforcing enterprise coherence through structured connections.
  • Integrating defense innovation into the reformed joint requirements system requires governance mechanisms that translate experimentation and prototyping into interoperable and sustainable capabilities.
  • Aligning the innovation ecosystem also demands anchoring activities to enterprise priorities and sustaining them beyond individual champions to ensure continuity and lasting impact.
  • Strategic alignment and durable ownership are conditions that make the broader innovation ecosystem coherent rather than episodic.

Recommendations

  • Establish a concise set of indicators tied to fielding, adoption, sustainment, and learning to assess whether innovation efforts yield measurable warfighting value.
  • Create a common set of materials (e.g., user feedback, performance data, cost estimates) that accompany innovations from experimentation to acquisition.
  • Define clear criteria and risk thresholds to guide when and how innovations advance through development and transition pathways.
  • Establish a dedicated mechanism to coordinate across innovation entities, requirements sponsors, and acquisition programs, ensuring continuity and accountability.
  • Provide predictable funding mechanisms that sustain promising innovations beyond prototype stages and into programs of record or enduring capability portfolios.

Topics

Document Details

Citation

Chicago Manual of Style

Mignano, Jim, Ryan Consaul, Megan McKernan, Stephen M. Worman, Heidi Peters, John Hoehn, and Audrey F. Cisneros, Integrating Innovation into U.S. Department of War Requirements Reform. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2026. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3510-1.html.
BibTeX RIS

Research conducted by

This research was sponsored by the Joint Staff and conducted within the Acquisition and Technology Policy Program of the RAND National Security Research Division.

This publication is part of the RAND research report series. Research reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND research reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited; linking directly to this product page is encouraged. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial purposes. For information on reprint and reuse permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions.

RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.