Silicon Valley Ties Are Key to Beating China, Pentagon’s No. 2 Says in California Visit
- A California visit as Hicks pushes for mass-produced drones
- Military aides in uniform met with engineers in flip-flops
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The Pentagon’s No. 2 official went to California this week to explore how to harness Silicon Valley’s innovation mindset as America’s military seeks to compete with China. The tech wizards she met with said the Defense Department must change its bureaucratic ways if it wants to succeed.
“The military keeps talking about their want and need for greater manufacturing capability, but they aren’t placing orders,” Blake Resnick, the 23-year-old multimillionaire and founder of BRINC Drones Inc., said in an interview after he and other industry leaders met with Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks.