February 2012

It is no secret that the Pentagon process for acquiring technology can be a long, cumbersome slog. But sometimes warfighters need something, and they need it now to save lives or gain an advantage over the enemy. In those cases--hundreds of cases--the rapid acquisition process can deliver capabilities weeks, months or even years quicker than the traditional routine.

A little-known U.S. Army site at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, is developing software to resolve data sharing issues between the three New Jersey nuclear power facilities and the state’s data fusion center in West Trenton—information sharing that would be critical in case of a nuclear disaster. The nuclear power plants and the state’s data fusion hub use two different decision support systems that are incapable of sharing data.

The U.S. Navy and the medical community share seemingly different but surprisingly similar problems—finding undersea mines and identifying certain cells, such as cancer cells. And they have discovered that software designed by the Navy to locate undersea mines also contributes to faster, more accurate diagnoses of diseases and can foster medical breakthroughs.