Pacing Threats in the Pacific: Accelerating Emerging Innovations in the Indo-Pacific to Bolster National Security
By Julia van der Colff & Jacqueline Blackburn | March 15, 2023
The United States is an Indo-Pacific power; the region is home to some of our most important allies and partners with whom we share regional and global responsibilities and challenges. The Indo-Pacific contains some of the world’s largest economies and innovative manufacturing hubs, connecting the East Asian economic powerhouses to the emerging and dynamic nations in South Asia through sea lanes that transport most of the world’s trade and ships. The region is experiencing dynamic shifts in security and economic cooperation paradigms as China seeks to exert its influence as a military, economic, and diplomatic power.
For the past eight decades, the United States’ focus on the Indo-Pacific was on deterrence and reassurance, primarily in Japan and South Korea. Two new paradigm shifts have emerged, changing the way that the United States will have to operate to achieve key objectives during both peacetime and wartime. First, China has intensified its focus on expanding influence and integrating different regional powers under Beijing’s leadership, undertaking increasingly aggressive military activities in the Indo-Pacific, and second, future conflicts will likely feature multi-domain operations focusing on an integrated battlefield across the sea, land, air, and cyber domains.
For the United States to successfully navigate these shifts and protect regional freedom, the country will have to adopt innovative approaches and capabilities for bolstering security and maintaining stability. This involves increasing collaboration with industry to drive innovation and bolstering partnerships with allies to provide “decision superiority.” As explained by Commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Chris Aquilino this past week at the 2023 Pacific Operational Science & Technology Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, “We need our allies, partners, and friends to take an active role in defending rules-based order because no one country, including the United States, can address the increasingly complex challenges we face alone.”
As advancements in technology have changed numerous aspects of modern warfare, mere seconds can be the difference between life and death, and even a few minutes could place the United States’ national security at risk. New enabled technologies will provide more data and information than ever, and commanders and operators will require tools to help prioritize information to aid rapid decision-making, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning and the integration of space, cyber, and communications capabilities.
To ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region that facilitates a peaceful and prosperous future, attaining deterrence and cooperation requires advancements in three key areas. “First, we need to continue developing capabilities designed to obtain and maintain decision superiority…Second, in addition to developing these capabilities, we must improve our ability to share information. Third, we need to increase combined training with a deliberate focus on space and cyber domains,” said Admiral Aquilino at the Pacific Operational Science & Technology (POST) Conference last week. “Decision superiority, increased information sharing, and more integrated, combined training will help to strengthen relationships and provide combat credible deterrence.”
The United States has entered an unprecedented moment in time where the future of security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific hangs in the balance; the United States will have to work with allies, private industry, and other partners to defend the region and bolster the necessary capabilities to do so. Supporting and scaling innovations that can be deployed in the Indo-Pacific as deterrents and in times of crisis is a critical objective for Decisive Point as we kick off the third cohort of NSIN Propel and work to grow the innovation ecosystem in the Pacific.
NSIN Propel Hawaii
As a partnership between the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN), the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet (PACFLT), Decisive Point, NavalX Hawaii Tech Bridge, Hawaii Technology Development Corporation (HTDC), and the University of Hawaii Office of Innovation and Commercialization (UH OIC), NSIN Propel Hawaii recruits companies with technology solutions for adaptation to address the modernization needs of the U.S. Navy and the broader DoD community. With China considered the top military threat, bolstering innovation and capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region remains a top priority for the Navy and other services.
Through NSIN Propel Hawaii, select U.S.-based startups will deliver and mature next-generation national security applications to support Navy forces in the Indo-Pacific and surrounding area. This year’s program spotlights priority areas for operations in the Indo-Pacific including autonomous systems, contested logistics, disaster and humanitarian response, and advanced communications. By supporting cohort companies as they develop and scale new innovative technologies, the program enables the Navy to maintain a competitive advantage on critical initiatives in the region.
Decisive Point at POST
This past week, Decisive Point, joined by the twelve startups in the 2023 NSIN Propel Hawaii cohort, attended the Pacific Operational Science & Technology (POST) Conference. This premier event hosts the Indo-Pacific’s foremost experts in science, technology, and security who gather to better understand the critical issues and challenges of the region. This year’s theme was Seizing the Initiative via Decision Superiority, Innovation, and Collaborative Partnerships.
Over 1,200 people attended the conference representing all five military service branches, premier research institutions, and government agencies. Our founders met with future customers and champions of their tech-focused on developing new capabilities within the Pacific area of operations. Senior DoD leaders including the Honorable Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, and Dr. George Ka’iliwai, Director, Requirements and Resources (J8), Headquarters, U.S. Pacific Command engaged directly with the cohort to learn more about their capabilities.
The POST Conference provided a unique opportunity for our emerging companies to establish new pathways to test and evaluate their technology by showcasing their products and services to potential customers and product partners within the DoD. The cohort conducted a 1:1 tech interchange with DoD S&T representatives, briefed capabilities at the conference emerging tech showcase, and demonstrated their technology at a field experimentation event held at the Honolulu Police Training Academy.
The Conference also helped companies network and integrate with each other to help solve government challenges through product-mission fit in customer discovery and future tech exchanges. Participation in this conference early into the accelerator program allowed for effective in-person dialogue and exposure to accelerate conversations and catalyze critical partnership engagements with complementary technologies and ideas. Much of the cohort left with plans to integrate and implement their technology with each other as well as other product partners that attended the conference.
Decisive Point is proud to partner with NSIN and continue to grow the innovation base and ecosystem in our nation’s most critical technology. The cohort of early-stage venture companies will deliver cutting-edge capabilities that will enable the US Navy and its partners to operate as a ready, capable, and combat-credible force in the Pacific region. Our Demo Day, scheduled for May 25th in Hawaii, will be a follow-up opportunity for our cohort to continue to engage with key government stakeholders and DoD personnel.
