A group of 21 technology industry leaders has called on the U.S. government through an open letter to facilitate greater collaboration with the tech sector to reestablish and protect the country’s military advantage amid strategic competition with China.
Some of the measures backed by the tech leaders in the letter published Friday are facilitating pathways for the Intelligence Community to adopt cutting-edge technologies and updating defense trade regulations and laws under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and Export Administration Regulations by authorizing licensing exemptions for modern defense systems for the U.K. and Australia.
Congress and the Biden administration should also codify programs such as those described in the Nontraditional Innovation Fielding Enterprise and Replicator initiative to rapidly deploy autonomous technologies across multiple domains, according to the letter.
The tech executives continued, calling on the U.S. government to consider systemic reforms, such as providing better oversight of the Department of Defense’s contracting processes to speed up the deployment of capabilities to warfighters and improving assured access to microelectronics, strategic minerals and other critical supply chain areas by supporting tax incentive or loan guarantee programs.
The government should additionally incentivize private investments in research and development of dual-use technologies and implement the National Security Commission on AI’s recommendation to boost DOD’s investment in artificial intelligence and other science and technology areas.
Jacob Helberg, commissioner of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, co-signed the letter with 20 other tech leaders, including Akash Jain, president of Palantir USG and a 2023 Wash100 awardee, and Brian Schmipf, CEO of Anduril Industries.