What a Dyson can Teach us about Defense Innovation

September 25, 2024

By Mike Dodd, USMC (Ret.)

5,127 prototypes. 5,127 failures. That’s how many times Sir James Dyson tweaked his now famous vacuum cleaner from 1979 until 1984. Finally, the 5,128th version worked—eventually making Dyson a global household name and changing one of the most mundane domestic tasks; no longer did a vacuum need a bag.

What’s even more amazing about the Dyson story is that it took another 10 years before sales of the new vacuum really took off.

While household cleaning isn’t existential like national security, there’s much we in the defense world can learn from Dyson, and other entrepreneurial stories.

I was struck by just how much innovation is coming from startups, non-traditionals, and large primes while walking through a recent technology display held at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. The Technology Readiness Experimentation, or T-REX as it’s called, showcased some 80 new technologies, including uncrewed, multi-domain, and autonomous systems with resilient communications.

T-REX is a component of the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER), and initiative that falls under the Office of Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD (R&E)). According to OUSD R&E, the mission of T-REX is “to help accelerate promising new prototypes into experimentation campaigns that would build the 'body of evidence' to enable accelerated fielding.”

But unlike James Dyson, who had to go it alone (with only the support from his wife’s salary as an art teacher), many of the technologies at T-REX either received government funding or are promising enough, that if they continue down the path of innovation, a substantial payout is highly likely.

"T-REX is valuable for helping us identify joint technologies that we should quickly push through the development timeline for combatant commanders to use sooner rather than later," said Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu.

The need for innovative and attritible autonomous systems at scale is clearer now than ever.

We’ve seen drone warfare play out in Ukraine with recent video showing a UAV dropping a “robot dog” to support troops on the front lines.

Then there’s Israel’s fight against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. In both cases, the Israelis have employed the Iron Dome missile interceptor platform. This ingenious system identifies, tracks, and shoots down incoming missiles with an astonishing 90-96% success rate. The only downfall is that the Tamir missiles it fires cost between $40,000-100,000 each. Defending against a single incoming enemy barrage could easily add up to millions of dollars. So the need for cheaper solutions is real, especially in preparation for any potential kinetic conflict with China, where the use of drone swarms is anticipated.

Some technology solutions at T-REX are ready for full scale production. But most need some additional work before their technology readiness level, or TRL, reaches full maturity.

But as one of the world’s most famous inventors, Thomas Edison, said of his path to new technologies, “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

That’s good advice for all entrepreneurs and innovators out there to relentlessly keep driving forward.

As Winston Churchill put it, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”