The department must undertake a significant reconsideration of how research and development should be utilized to expand the technological defense industrial base. Moreover, without a change in direction, the department’s support for critical long-term research could continue on its downward spiral.
Its language and direction seemingly conflict with a law, now simplified and reinforced, intended to protect investments.
The Defense Department’s Better Buying Power 3.0 initiative has led to new rules that curtail the ability of industry to maintain both the “independent” and the “research” components of independent research and development, or IRAD. The life of government contractors with independent research-and-development funding has never been easy or straightforward, and recent regulatory changes have only made the landscape more challenging.
