The Innovation Deficit: Why U.S. National Defense is Falling Behind

William Monroe
Dec 18, 2025
3 min read

In a rapidly changing global landscape, the traditional edge of American military technology is being tested like never before. In a recent episode of the Analytical Innovation podcast, Dr. William Monroe and CEO Mark Frohlich sat down with Admiral Gary Roughead (Ret.), the 29th Chief of Naval Operations, to discuss a sobering reality: the U.S. is losing its lead in national security innovation.

Admiral Roughead’s insights provide a roadmap for understanding where the system is broken and, more importantly, how we can fix it.

The Shift from Public to Private

For decades, the most significant military breakthroughs—from nuclear power to the internet—originated in the public sector. Today, that landscape has flipped. Innovation now moves at lightning speed in the private sector, but the Department of Defense (DoD) is struggling to keep pace.

"We have not been able to make those changes," Admiral Roughead noted, pointing out that while private companies are at the "front edge," the government remains tethered to outdated infrastructure and political resistance [05:33].

The Three Pillars of Stagnation

According to Roughead, the current "innovation deficit" is driven by three primary factors:

Process Over Outcomes: The DoD has become a "process-driven" culture rather than an "outcome-driven" one. The focus has shifted to satisfying administrative milestones rather than fielding working technology [06:06].
Risk Aversion: In an attempt to eliminate failure, the government has created a culture that punishes risk. This results in "techno-tourism"—officials attending conferences and site visits without ever delivering a concrete application [10:34].
Diluted Accountability: Historically, transformational projects like the Manhattan Project succeeded because authority was vested in a single person. Today, authority is spread so thin that no one is truly accountable for a program’s success or failure [07:46].

The "Lost Decade" of Autonomy

The cost of this stagnation isn't theoretical; it’s measurable. Roughead shared a poignant example: in 2012, the Navy successfully flew an autonomous aircraft on and off a carrier and refueled it in mid-air. Yet, due to cultural pushback and bureaucratic inertia, the U.S. is only just now returning to that level of capability [13:31].

"That is over a decade of lost time," he warned, noting that cultural resistance—such as the perceived threat of pilotless planes to a piloted Air Force—often acts as the greatest inhibitor to progress [13:50].

The China Challenge

Perhaps most alarming is the comparison to China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Admiral Roughead observed that China is now behaving "what we used to be"—more risk-tolerant, faster to iterate, and focused on applications rather than just the technology itself [16:50]. While the U.S. spends years debating "programs of record," China is fielding and testing prototypes in real-world scenarios [17:44].

A Call for Radical Reform

To reclaim the lead, Admiral Roughead suggests several critical shifts:

Rationalize R&D Infrastructure: Align government labs with the realities of the private sector.
Personnel Reform: Move away from career paths based on longevity and toward rewarding those who hit technical milestones [20:59].
Flexible Funding: Allow for "small experimental buys" that bypass the multi-year "program of record" process, enabling the military to test "minimum viable products" in the field [21:34].

Final Thoughts

The message from the Admiral is clear: we must change before we are forced to. Innovation is not just about having the coolest technology; it’s about the speed of application. As the podcast concluded, the goal isn't just to "love the technology," but to ensure that those who serve have the tools they need to stay ahead of the curve [23:20].

Watch the full interview with Admiral Gary Roughead here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leWnG6HYinc