New Delhi, India - Last week, the Defense Innovation Unit, along with the U.S. Department of Defense and Indian Ministry of Defense (MoD), participated in the second India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) Summit in New Delhi, India.
Speakers at the INDUS-X Summit explored opportunities to co-produce advanced military capabilities, create resilient defense supply chains, and enhance U.S.-India military interoperability in support of both countries' shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific. Panel participants expanded on several themes inspired by the original INDUS-X collaboration agenda: deepening defense industrial partnerships, increasing collaborative research and testing facility access, mobilizing private capital to support critical defense technologies, and commercializing dual-use technologies. The governments also led a hybrid information session on export controls for U.S. and Indian defense start-ups that aim to form partnerships and co-develop technology.
The DIU, NSIN, OSD-P, IDEX Challenge teams.
“A stronger international community of defense innovation entities among allies and partners can enhance best practices for harnessing and sharing commercial technology solutions,” said Doug Beck, Director of DIU. “Partnering with iDEX is a great example of how we increase mission-driven collaboration in key areas of need.”
DIU and our IDEX (Innovations for Defense Excellence) counterparts.
The summit included announcements on priority efforts under INDUS-X including joint challenges. DIU and Innovations for Defense Excellence (iDEX) announced the winners of the first two INDUS-X joint challenges, in which companies compete to develop technologies that solve military problems for the DoD and MoD. Following a competitive process supported by military service partners and both governments, ten U.S. and Indian companies won over $1 million to develop technologies related to undersea communications and maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). At the Summit, DIU and iDEX also announced that they will open applications for two joint challenges focused on space-based ISR in the coming months.