President-elect Donald Trump is considering an executive at software giant Palantir for a pivotal role in shaping the Pentagon's research and engineering strategy, Politico Pro reported Wednesday.
Shyam Sankar, Palantir's chief technology officer, is being evaluated to oversee the Pentagon's research, development, and prototyping efforts and significantly influence the technologies the U.S. military adopts, according to sources familiar with the matter. The move would signal a potential shift toward integrating more commercial innovation into the Department of Defense.
Sankar, a longstanding advocate for innovation, has been vocal about reforming the Pentagon's acquisition processes. In an analysis he wrote titled "The Defense Reformation" published Oct. 31, he criticized the dominance of mega contractors in the defense industry and urged the Pentagon to rely more on commercially available technologies to reduce costs and accelerate development.
He also attacked cost-plus contracts, a common Pentagon practice that he argued stifles innovation by rewarding expense accumulation over efficiency, Defense One reported Tuesday.
Sankar compared the Pentagon's procurement system to a centrally planned economy, calling it a "communist approach to acquisition" and advocated for increased competition to drive innovation. He pointed to SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, as an example of how commercial companies can disrupt traditional defense paradigms, reducing costs dramatically while achieving greater efficiency.
Palantir, a software company expanding its footprint in defense and government technology, has advocated for greater use of artificial intelligence and data-driven solutions in military operations. Sankar has championed tools such as the Maven Smart System, which employs AI to streamline complex military processes. This allows fewer personnel to manage operations that previously required significantly larger teams.
Sankar emphasized in an interview with Defense One the need for the Pentagon to adopt a more commercial mindset and noted the inefficiencies in the current system.
"We've created a unique class of defense specialists, divorced from the broader innovation economy, which has made our country less safe and less competitive," he said. He also pointed out that although many Chinese defense suppliers also operate commercially, U.S. defense primes have become overly reliant on Pentagon contracts.
In "The Defense Reformation," Sankar underscores his belief in leveraging market forces within government processes. He argued for scrapping cost-plus contracts, introducing more competitive bidding, and dual-purpose partnerships with commercial companies. His approach echoes successful historical examples, such as before the Cold War, where competition and collaboration with commercial industries led to innovation.
Sankar told Defense One, the most important question is, How did we get here?
"We are in this state of undeclared emergency," he said. "My argument to you is really this: We went from spending 94% of our money on dual-purpose companies to creating a unique class of defense specialists that we put on the Galapagos Islands, and we created a great schism between commercial innovation and defense. And that has made our country much less safe, much less innovative. It's created many of these problems, and we did that because of the nature of monopsony. And the answer is to fix that. That's where it starts."
Simply put, he said, "we need more competition inside of government."
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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