Today’s interview with Mike Wiegland from Shift5 highlights how commercial technology can assist warfighters on the battlefield.  Mike provides insight into how the commercial industry can help innovate with defense technology.

He has a military and technical background and has real-world examples of how operational technology can enable military systems to deter adversaries.

The federal government is being attacked relentlessly. Malicious actors are constantly looking in every nook and cranny to get an edge. Even if you dedicated all the estimated 1.3 million DoD employees full-time, it wouldn’t be enough to overcome the attacks.

As a result, federal agencies are looking to partner with private companies to solve some persistent problems.  One can define “public-private” partnership in many ways, the most common are efforts at defining standards.

However, what happens when a commercial organization has a technology that can assist a federal agency?  The most recent example was when Starlink assisted Ukraine with geo-intelligence.  Ostensibly, the satellite system was a commercial endeavor, but it was used at the tip of the spear. The referenced  mass of electronics circling the earth at 23,000 is a simple, visual example.

When one uses commercial products for a federal, or even a military application, it can be called “Dual Use.”

A more mundane example may be operational technology or OT. Frequently, these are sensors that monitor industrial or transportation equipment. An example may be monitoring sensors on aircraft.

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