Navy Continues the Trend of Transparency: Getting Specific About What They Want
30 July 2025 - A Weekly Publication by New North Ventures
Navy PTAs Show Defense Moving Toward Commercial-First Innovation
The Navy's new Priority Technology Areas document offers something rare in defense innovation - clear guidance on where government resources will flow. Rather than guessing what might interest the Pentagon, companies can now see explicit technology priorities that align commercial development with defense needs.
The PTAs are yet another signal of the shift in how defense thinks about innovation sourcing. Instead of developing military-specific solutions, the framework assumes useful technologies will emerge from commercial markets first. This matches what we see in practice - the most successful defense technologies often start as commercial products that prove their value in civilian applications first then can rapidly deploy into national security operating environments.
The five priority areas reflect current strategic challenges. AI/Autonomy addresses the need for faster decision-making in complex environments. Quantum and cybersecurity focus on information warfare capabilities. The emphasis on transport and connectivity recognizes that modern military operations depend on robust, secure networks.
What's notable is the explicit industry guidance. The document states these priorities should inform private sector investment decisions, creating more predictable demand signals for both dual-use investors and technology companies considering national security applications.
Companies can use PTA alignment as validation for defense market potential rather than speculative military applications. The framework provides clearer pathways for commercial companies entering defense markets. Investors gain better visibility into government technology spending priorities. While implementation timelines remain uncertain, the PTAs offer more systematic demand indicators than traditional defense procurement signals. This creates opportunities for companies to derisk their decisions about when and how to pursue commercial and government customers effectively.
Speaking of the Navy's commercial-first approach, Tectonic's report on the MASC program launch couldn't have better timing. Here's a concrete example of how those priority areas translate into actual solicitations - maritime autonomy sits squarely within the AI/Autonomy and Transport/Connectivity buckets we just discussed.
What's encouraging is seeing PMS 406 explicitly target nontraditional contractors and use OTAs. This isn't just procurement theater - it's the operational manifestation of that commercial-first approach. The three-phase process has some echoes of venture funding - brief overview, deeper pitch, comprehensive evaluation - though the focus remains distinctly on production capacity and technical merit.
The medium-sized USV focus makes strategic sense too. Small drones prove concepts but lack payload capacity. Large vessels offer capability but remain expensive single points of failure. Medium USVs hit the sweet spot for distributed operations - enough capability to matter, affordable enough to lose.
Companies like HavocAI and Saronic have been betting on this exact thesis. Now they have systematic demand validation rather than hoping someone in the Pentagon might eventually care about their technology.
More links to explore:
Maximizing the Effectiveness of DoD and IC Chief Technology Officers
OpenAI CEO warns banks of 'impending fraud crisis' from AI voices
Congratulations to Reality Defender for bringing Alex Lisle aboard as CTO. After 25 years building enterprise security platforms and countless patents in cybersecurity, Alex is tackling his next challenge - fighting deepfakes at scale.
What's compelling about this hire is how it reflects Reality Defender's evolution from point solution to platform. Alex has spent his career taking complex security technology and making it accessible at enterprise scale. Now he's applying that playbook to synthetic media detection, just with significantly higher stakes than traditional cybersecurity threats.
When AI can perfectly mimic your CEO's voice for wire transfer fraud, when deepfake videos can fool finance teams, when synthetic media can impersonate anyone, the trust infrastructure of business itself comes under attack. Alex isn't just building better detection algorithms - he's architecting the distributed defense network we'll need against an entirely new category of threat.
Catch Reality Defender at Black Hat in Vegas to see how they're scaling deepfake detection beyond enterprise deployments into the kind of accessible, systematic protection that modern businesses actually need.
Congratulations to Alex Oliver on joining Andreessen Horowitz to support their American Dynamism efforts. After 15 years in the US Army and serving as an advisor at USSOCOM, Alex is bringing his military intelligence background to one of Silicon Valley's most influential firms.
What makes this transition particularly notable is how it reflects the growing recognition that military experience translates directly to technology investing and company building. Alex's background in intelligence operations provides exactly the kind of systems thinking and risk assessment that dual-use companies need as they navigate complex commercial and government markets.
His continued service in the Military Intelligence Readiness Command of the Army Reserve also demonstrates something we see increasingly among veterans entering tech - the ability to bridge military and commercial worlds simultaneously rather than choosing one or the other.
This kind of talent flow between defense and venture capital strengthens the entire dual-use ecosystem and reflects the parallels in high-consequence environments. When experienced military leaders join major investment firms, it creates better due diligence capabilities, stronger government relationships, and more informed capital allocation decisions across the sector.
Time to build, indeed.
In this episode of the 'Securing Our Future' podcast, hosted by New North Ventures, Jeremy interviews Jennifer Ewbank, a former Deputy Director of the CIA for Digital Innovation, about her storied career, the importance of private-public partnerships, and navigating transitions from a high-stakes government role to the private sector. They delve into Jennifer's insights on the importance of purpose, the role of technology, and her personal journey post-retirement.
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