National Online Forum webinar on Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Over the last decade and especially in the last few years, a number of global trends have forced the US Air and Space Forces to rethink the way that we research, develop and acquire new technologies and systems. These three trends include:

1. The share of Global R&D from the US and from the US DoD has decreased from ~36% in 1960 to ~3% in 2020. In response, we must find ways to use our defense budget to leverage the technological gains made outside the DoD.
2. The defense industrial base has been consolidating and shrinking at all levels (Large Primes and Small and Medium Enterprises), providing less of an impetus for competition and innovation. We must consider how to build the 21st century industrial base for defense rather than the 21st century defense industrial base. What this means in practice is that we must develop ways to work with companies whose primary customer is not the DoD.
3. The rise of China and other adversaries have created a new battlefield of ‘technological influence’ where large commercial technology companies can have significant national security effects (i.e. Huawei and DJI). This leads to the question of how can the US encourage and catalyze the growth of technology companies from the US and our allied countries.

In response to these three trends, the Department of The Air Force (DAF), which includes the US Air Force and the US Space Force has set up AFWERX with the mission of leveraging commercial technologies and private R&D funding to deliver solutions to increase national security. You can learn more about AFWERX here: https://www.afwerx.af.mil/

One of the key programs of AFWERX is AFVentures, which is a new way of bringing companies to work with the DAF. The program leverages the Small Business Innovation Research funding to lower barriers to entry for working with the DAF and increase the opportunities to scale for successful products and programs. In order to do this, AFVentures employs an investment strategy of ‘Many Small Bets, and Scale the Winners’. What this means in practice is a three stage program: Feasibility, Prototype, and Scale.

Please join us on Wednesday, January 20, 2021 when Major Steve Lauver, Co-Founder and AFVentures Deputy Division Chief, AFWERX, will talk about how to begin working with the DAF in as little as 60 days.

The meeting is free for members and $25 for non-members   Register at https://adfnofjan2020.eventbrite.com.