Speed & Scale: Managing Defense Technology Innovation in Ukraine

The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) is tasked with strengthening national security by accelerating the adoption of innovative new technologies from non-traditional vendors throughout the military and bolstering allied and domestic national security innovation bases. DIU partners with individual domestic military services, along with academia and innovative companies outside the traditional defense industrial base, to rapidly prototype and field innovative new capabilities that solve critical national security challenges at speed and scale and, through so doing, to help deter future conflict.

As part of a multi-year effort and utilizing a case-study approach, the team assigned to this Spring 2026 Capstone will build on the work of prior related Capstone efforts in 2023, 2024, and 2025 to assess the policies, procedures, and practices used in Ukraine to identify, develop, and field impactful new defense technologies at speed and scale.  Based on this analysis, Capstone participants will then extract implications for how DIU and other national security organizations might better drive impactful domestic defense technology innovation and identify areas that may benefit from further research during future DIU-sponsored Capstone efforts.