Dr. Jason Stack
“Transforming Defense Logistics in the Indo-Pacific”
Sponsor Perspective
Dr. Jason Stack
Overview
Through Hacking for Defense® (H4D), a nationwide university program that leverages the brightest students to address national security problems, students are taught how to apply entrepreneurial methodologies to understand and offer pathways for addressing a specific government problem.
Each team is given a different problem and every problem has a government problem sponsor. Problem sponsors are members of the Department of Defense or Intelligence Community who possess the relevant technical or professional expertise to mentor their students. They act as both the client and liaison, owning the problem the students are trying to solve and facilitating their investigation into its root causes.
Sponsor Biography:
Dr. Jason Stack is an internationally recognized expert in autonomy, AI, maritime system development, and leading innovation in large organizations. He is currently the CTO and cofounder of a dual-use maritime logistics startup, and he consults on innovation in the National Security ecosystem. He holds a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech, an MBA from MIT, and recently retired as a senior executive from a 20-year DoD career.
Sponsor Perspective:
Could you talk us through the problem you submitted?
The problem that I gave our students was intentionally broad and open-ended; it was to examine ways to help deter war in the Indo-Pacific. This breadth was intended to allow nontraditional thinking and admit diversity of thought. Initially, it placed a significant burden on the team. While other teams were working on solutions, my team was still working to narrow the problem statement. Nevertheless, the payoff was realized by the team’s objective analysis and conclusion—that a key to deterrence in the Indo-Pacific is the ability to sustain combat operations across vast distances and over time—i.e., contested logistics.
What did your team do with this problem?
During the course and in the several months following, the team conducted over 1,000 interviews, briefs, and phone calls. This monumental amount of interaction began as research that informed their analysis, led them to a solution, continued as validation, and concluded as advocacy for the solution. This solution was a low-profile vessel (LPV) modeled on drug-running semi-submersible marine vessels. Key characteristics of this solution include low cost / ability to manufacture large numbers, low signature / difficult to detect or target, and a smaller cargo capacity that is ideally suited to emerging US Naval doctrine concerning combat operations in the Indo-Pacific.
What happened after the course was over?
At the conclusion of the course, most of the student team realized the amazing potential for this project, felt increasingly passionate about the topic and mission, and voluntarily continued the effort on the side for over a year. They continued to mature the LPV concept, spent a summer working at INDOPACOM (as a result of participating in H4D), and I continued advising them on nights and weekends. This project also contributed directly to changing the career trajectories of at least three of the students. These students were previously building towards careers in law, private equity, and political science, and they each shifted to work in the national security ecosystem.
How did their finding impact the organization?
The team’s thought leadership, advocacy, and tireless communications across the Department of Defense (DoD) served as the impetus for this solution approach to be seriously considered. Based on the team’s work, five different LPV prototyping efforts emerged across different facets of the DoD, and several of them matured. For example, the US Marine Corps’ prototype effort is to use the LPV concept to resupply ground forces with missiles, and funding for the effort appears in the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Estimate. Beyond the specific prototyping efforts, a major impact was the change in strategic discussions about logistics. What this effort did was to put a viable, alternative, yet complementary option on the table for contested logistics at a time when it was desperately needed. This has allowed DoD to explore the “large numbers of small ships” alternative to complement the DoD’s existing capability of small numbers of very large ships. A final yet major impact was the incidental benefit of the team and H4D process conducting such vast numbers of conversations across disparate parts of the DoD discussing an LPV solution approach to the contested logistics problem. Through these conversations, groups that would not normally interact were connected on a common thread, and a disruptive approach to a hard problem was introduced in a less-threatening manner. In the end, it was this effort that catalyzed the LPV activity that is currently active in DoD today.
Why should other potential government sponsors get involved in the H4D program?
The Hacking for Defense program offers a unique opportunity for government sponsors to access diverse and innovative solutions to their challenges. By engaging with H4D teams, sponsors can explore a wide range of approaches, including high-risk, out-of-the-box ideas that might not emerge through traditional channels. The students participating in H4D are exceptionally talented and passionate about national security, bringing fresh perspectives to complex problems. I would strongly encourage potential sponsors to frame their problem statements broadly, allowing the teams to explore and iterate effectively, leading to more robust and innovative solutions.
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