DOD Bill Creates 'Innovation Fast Lane' for Military Tech, Prioritizing 5 Projects Annually

The new DOD Entrepreneurial Innovation Act is essentially setting up a dedicated fast lane for promising military technology projects, aiming to cut through the Department of Defense’s famously slow procurement process. The bill mandates that the military service Secretaries (like the Secretary of the Army) must designate at least five programs each year as “Entrepreneurial Innovation Projects.” These selected projects are currently defined as those already working under a Phase III agreement of the Small Business Act.

This isn't just a pat on the back; it’s a direct ticket to budget visibility. Once a project gets this designation, the Secretary of Defense is required to include its estimated spending in the very next future-years defense program report sent to Congress. This means the project gets officially embedded into the DOD’s long-term planning and budgeting process (the PPBE), making it much harder for the funding to get lost or cut later on. The goal here is clearly to ensure that innovative tech—the kind that can actually save money or give the U.S. a major edge—doesn’t die in budget obscurity.

The Expert Panel That Holds the Keys

To decide which projects get this golden ticket, the bill requires each military department to create a new advisory panel within 120 days of the law passing. These panels are the gatekeepers, tasked with reviewing applications and recommending projects. The selection criteria are practical: does the project significantly boost U.S. national security capabilities, and can it introduce new technologies that save money down the road? They need to recommend at least five programs annually to the Secretary.

What’s interesting about these panels is who’s on them. They’re designed to bring in outside expertise, with three out of the five members required to be private-sector experts who have experience bringing innovations to market—people who know how to scale a promising idea. This is a smart move, bringing real-world business savvy to military procurement decisions. However, a detail worth noting is that these panels are explicitly exempt from the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which usually requires transparency and public oversight for government advisory groups. While this FACA exemption might speed up their work, it does mean the public won't have the usual visibility into how these high-stakes decisions are being made.

Budgeting and Real-World Impact

For the small businesses and tech companies working on defense contracts, this bill is huge. If your project gets selected, you move from fighting for scraps in the annual budget cycle to having your funding needs baked into the DOD’s long-term plan. This stability allows companies to confidently hire, invest, and scale production, knowing the military is serious about adopting their technology. This could translate into faster deployment of things like advanced sensors, secure communications, or AI tools.

On the flip side, the bill specifies that the administrative costs for running these new advisory panels will be covered by the Department of Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Account. This account is usually dedicated to training and developing the DOD’s acquisition workforce—the people who buy the gear. While the cost may be manageable, it’s a direct diversion of funds intended for internal staff training to cover the operations of these external advisory groups. For the taxpayer, this means a small shift in where existing training dollars are being spent, prioritizing the selection of new tech over the professional development of the existing acquisition staff.