The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has launched the Bridge Program to tackle infrastructure, cybersecurity authorization, and testing barriers that can prevent commercial technologies from moving from successful prototypes into use across the Department of Defense (DOD).
Under the Trump administration, the DOD was rebranded as the War Department.
According to an Aug. 17 memo from DIU Director Owen West, the program will focus on three areas – classified infrastructure, cybersecurity accreditations, and test and evaluation – as DIU looks to speed the transition of commercial technologies into military use.
“For more than a decade, DIU has rapidly prototyped capabilities and collapsed contracting timelines,” West wrote in the memo. “Delivering prototypes quickly is no longer good enough.”
West said promising technologies can face delays during clearance, authorization, and budgeting processes before reaching the frontlines.
“Our mandate is clear: assist the military services by eliminating critical bottlenecks – security clearances, access to classified spaces, technology accreditations, and testing,” West wrote.
Sarah Pearson will lead the Bridge Program and drive what West described as a commercial-first strategy for implementing new approaches across the department.
“Within one year, we will open co-use classified facilities nationwide, slash cyber authorization timelines by half, and enable agile, end-to-end testing capabilities for young companies desperate to demonstrate,” West wrote.
The program’s first line of effort focuses on the design, construction, accreditation, and operation of classified spaces. The department said it is combining commercial technologies, process improvements, rapid contracting, policy changes, and congressional support to address barriers surrounding classified infrastructure.
“When successful, we will have demonstrated a new model, a model where classified infrastructure is resourced based upon usage and becomes operational within months – not years – of the need arising,” Pearson said.
Pearson also pointed to collaboration across the department, citing partnerships with the offices responsible for intelligence and security, acquisition and sustainment, and research and engineering, as well as the Defense Intelligence Agency, Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, and the armed services.
The Bridge Program and a broader working group across those organizations had their first major contracting announcement last month, when President Donald Trump announced a $10 billion investment in Pennsylvania’s defense industry on July 16.
The announcement included investment in four shared commercial classified facilities, including one planned for Pittsburgh. The department said the Pittsburgh facility will use the joint funding model that the Bridge Program is prototyping.
Beyond Pittsburgh, the Bridge Program has contracted for nine additional commercially owned and operated sites across the United States. The locations identified by the department include Austin, Texas; San Francisco; Boston; Charleston, S.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Louisville, Ky.; and New York. Additional locations will be announced in the coming weeks.
The program’s second line of effort focuses on speeding cybersecurity accreditation. Pearson said the effort will combine cybersecurity expertise, a risk-based approach, and artificial intelligence capabilities.
The program plans to use technology to accelerate DIU’s authorization process, with the goal of shortening timelines and increasing throughput with fewer resources.
“We plan to shift the risk management framework process to the left in prototype development and build cybersecure solutions that the services can more easily field,” Pearson said. “Indexing toward accreditations for every program and sooner in development are critical to adoption.”
The third line of effort centers on test and evaluation and builds on DIU’s work prototyping commercially derived technologies within the department’s developmental and operational testing infrastructure.
Pearson said DIU is developing an end-to-end testing approach for companies entering its prototype pipeline, with testing opportunities throughout the contract lifecycle. The approach is intended to connect capability development with existing and emerging test infrastructure for physical and digital applications.
West said the Bridge Program reflects a broader shift in DIU’s approach to transitioning commercial technology.
“We are in a new era,” West wrote. “Transition no longer ends with the success memo.”
The goal, he said, is to make commercial capabilities accessible so the military services can transition and scale them for battlefield use.
“In modern combat, the advantage belongs to those who adopt, and adapt, fastest,” West wrote.