Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks recently called the transition from prototype to full-scale production within DoD’s acquisition process one of DoD’s biggest problems. And she’s not the only one who thinks so. Stefanie Tompkins, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, referred to it as a “full-contact sport.” But she also said that DARPA is working on one very specific pathway to help some technologies through the so-called “Valley of Death.”
