Changes

The RAND Corporation(7) has put forth an interesting idea to handle military R&D in a similar way to many major corporations, by having a strategic investments arm which follows a venture capital model. By investing in smaller companies and lending military resources and expertise to their development teams, a strategic investment wing of the military could help start-ups develop cutting edge technologies at a fraction of the current price. This would solve the key issues, providing a return-on-investment rather than a contract style arrangement with developers, and would focus on true, cost-effective innovation rather than the current overblown targets such as the F-35.