COMMENTARY
AVOID THE PLUNGE
PEO C3T, the Network Cross-Functional Team and the C5ISR Center work to find a route around the technology transition valley of death.
by Tyler J. Cook
Many in the Army acquisition community are familiar with “the technology transition valley of death”—the all-too-common occurrence when emerging science and technology (S&T) programs fail to successfully transition to a project management office for potential integration, acquisition, produc- tion and fielding.
Te Army’s technology transition process plays a key role in delivering emerging capabilities to U.S. forces and retaining technological overmatch against peer and near-peer adversaries. Global tensions and the potential for conflict with tech-savvy threats have renewed the Army’s interest concerning the plight of technology development programs and their successful transitions to project management offices.
In 2019, several commercial prototype development efforts focused on improving network resiliency and capacity were initiated as part of the Army’s two-year interval network modernization capabil- ity set acquisition and fielding process. Tese prototypes showed significant promise and highlighted the Army’s enhanced collaboration with industry and industry’s innovation to meet emerging capabil- ity requirements. Te Army conducted successful assessments on these prototypes, followed by system improvements and touch point events with Soldier feedback to inform additional enhancements.
However, some of the prototypes stalled, teetering over the technology transition valley of death, because of evolving maturity levels or the lack of additional research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) funding needed to improve the prototype and integrate with existing Army network communications capabilities (Figure 1). Without the established funding, the technology transition bridge had only been built halfway, increasing the likelihood of prototypes toppling into the valley of death.
Te Army implements technology transitions when an S&T system has reached a certain maturity level, known as a technology readiness level (TRL), which is measured through a technology readiness
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