Pentagon Tech Efforts are ’90 Percent Waste’: Former DoD Official

Waste, mismanagement, and a general unwillingness to adopt new ways of doing things are preventing the United States military from contending with China in several critical and emerging technology fields, according to one former Pentagon official.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is threatening to leapfrog over the United States in developing AI, machine learning, and hypersonic weapons technologies, said former chief software officer of the Air Force, Nicolas Chaillan.

“[There’s] a lot of silos and egos, kind of slowing the urgency or, at the very least, not admitting often that China is leading the way in some of these fields that will define who is going to win the next battle,” Chaillan said during an Aug. 30 interview with NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.

Chaillan said that the fast pace at which the CCP was acquiring advanced technologies, both through partnering with U.S. companies and outright theft, was a major cause of concern for national security.

More than that, however, he said that there was a lack of drive at the Pentagon to combat the threat.

“You see complacency in the building,” Chaillan said.

“We hear the leadership but talk the talk, but not walk the walk.”

 Chaillan, who resigned from his post as the Air Force’s first Chief Software Officer due to the Pentagon’s lack of action on China and other issues last year, said that the DoD was still failing to adopt the central practices that drive most all modern tech companies and innovation.

Further, he said, it was squandering massive amounts of resources in the process.

“All these key principles that you see on the commercial side to be able to create innovation and be able to get things done are not yet adopted in DoD,” Chaillan said.

“You see a massive waste of

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