Department of War partners with In-Q-Tel to fast-track defense tech

The US Department of War’s Critical Technologies Office has entered into a partnership with the Central Intelligence Agency and its venture fund, In-Q-Tel (IQT), to accelerate the deployment of commercial technologies for battlefield use.

Through this collaboration, the Department will utilize In-Q-Tel’s global technology-scouting network and portfolio of early-stage companies to identify and evaluate commercial hardware and software that meet operational requirements. The initiative aims to de-risk the integration of non-traditional commercial solutions into national security applications by providing structured pathways for technical due diligence and military adoption.

The partnership focuses on six priority critical technology areas: applied artificial intelligence, biomanufacturing, contested logistics technologies, quantum and battlefield information dominance, scaled directed energy, and scaled hypersonics.