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The Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board (DIB) is an advisory committee that recommends ways the Department of Defense can adopt innovation. It advises senior defense officials on technology, innovation processes, organizational practices and workforce issues—not on individual weapons purchases or other specific procurement decisions.
What the Defense Innovation Board does
The DIB advises the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense on how the department can address challenges and accelerate the adoption of innovation in its culture, technologies, organizational structures, processes and functions. Its 2024–2026 charter places the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E)) between the board and those senior officials: the board provides its advice through that office. Read the DIB charter.
The charter’s remit includes several connected areas:
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- Innovation pathways and pipelines across the Department of Defense.
- Emerging and disruptive technologies.
- Commercial-sector approaches to innovation strategy, management, processes and architectures.
- Organizational behavior and design, human capital, decision-making and scaling innovation.
- Ways to use the U.S. innovation ecosystem in support of national security.
Its planned membership reflects this broad remit. The board’s membership balance plan identifies expertise in adopting innovation, entrepreneurship and technology development, early-stage investment, organizational and talent leadership, national-security and technology policy, and the ethical and societal effects of emerging technology. See the membership balance plan.
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Who receives its advice, and who makes decisions?
The charter names the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense as the DoD Appointing Authority and USD(R&E) as the board’s sponsor and conduit. Those officials may act on DIB recommendations under department policy and procedures. The board can recommend; it is not itself the department’s policy-making or acquisition decision-maker. The charter describes its role and reporting path.
Does the DIB advise on specific weapons purchases?
No. The charter expressly excludes advice on individual DoD procurement and acquisition matters. It also bars assigning a task that would require a member to participate personally and substantially in a procurement or acquisition action, or put that member in the role of acting as—or consulting to—a contracting, procurement or acquisition official. The board’s interest in defense technology is therefore about broader innovation adoption, not choosing or buying a particular item. See the charter’s procurement and acquisition restrictions.
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- Perfectly sized for young hands and collectors alike, this aircraft model is easy to handle, whether for active runway adventures or for display on a shelf as part of a growing airplane collection.
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Meetings and documented work
The 2024–2026 charter estimates four meetings per year. That is a planning estimate, not a record of how many meetings took place. The official public-meetings archive lists January 13, 2025 as its latest dated meeting; that page does not establish whether later meetings occurred. Charter · Public-meetings archive.
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A Department of Defense release about the January 13, 2025 meeting says the board met with Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks. It identifies Michael R. Bloomberg as chair for that meeting and says the board released studies on scaling innovation in nontraditional industry and drone manufacturing. These details describe the 2025 event; they do not confirm the board’s leadership today. Read the DoD release.
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How the board began
The DIB was established in 2016. At its first public meeting, then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter described its purpose as advising him and future defense secretaries on competitiveness and a culture of innovation. He said he created it “to advise me and future defense secretaries on how we can keep growing more competitive, stay ahead of our competitors, and stay the best, particularly by keeping DoD imbued with a culture of innovation in people, practices, organizations, and technology.” Read Carter’s remarks.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is known about its status today?
The available charter is labeled 2024–2026, and the official archive lists January 13, 2025 as its latest dated public meeting. Those sources do not establish whether the charter was renewed after its stated period, whether the board met later, or who currently serves as chair or member. The 2025 chair should not be treated as the current chair without newer confirmation.
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