The effort supports Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s push to supercharge the defense industrial base, one of four lines of effort in the 2026 National Defense Strategy. “We’ve got to go fast. The warfighters need it; they deserve it,” Hegseth said during an Arsenal of Freedom tour stop at a Lockheed Martin facility in Texas seven months ago.
Hegseth also pointed to the pace of military development by U.S. competitors. “We’ve got near-peer adversaries that are building at record speed,” he said.
DIU was founded in 2015 to accelerate the War Department’s adoption of commercial technology at speed and scale, with the goals of lowering costs and increasing combat power. Since January, the organization has been working to accelerate the acquisition of commercial capabilities across the armed services.
The Bridge Program was conceived and developed over the past year by Sarah Pearson, a former Navy officer and technology executive who serves as DIU’s chief of strategic initiatives. Pearson has seen the obstacles faced by nontraditional companies seeking to sell and scale commercial solutions for military use.
The program is targeting bottlenecks involving security clearances, access to classified spaces, technology accreditations and testing. Its goal is to expand commercial engagement, reduce risks, accelerate capability development and increase adoption of commercial technologies for warfighters.
Its first line of effort focuses on the design, construction, accreditation and operation of classified facilities. DIU is combining commercial technology, process changes, rapid contracting, policy and Congressional support to address the classified infrastructure process.
“When successful, we will have demonstrated a new model, a model where classified infrastructure is resourced based upon usage and becomes operational within months — not years — of the need arising,” Pearson said. She also pointed to cooperation across the War Department and other defense organizations as a driver of the program’s early progress.
“Our partners within three offices — the offices of the undersecretary of war for intelligence and security; acquisition and sustainment; and research and engineering — as well as the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Defense Counterintelligence Security Agency and the armed services have been the single greatest unlock in achieving the early success we’ve seen so far,” Pearson said. Those organizations are working with DIU through the broader group supporting the Bridge Program.
The program recorded its first major contracting announcement last month when President Donald J. Trump announced a $10 billion investment in Pennsylvania’s defense industry on July 16. The announcement included investment in four shared commercial classified facilities, including one planned for Pittsburgh under the joint funding model being prototyped by the Bridge Program.
DIU has also contracted for nine additional commercially owned and operated sites across the United States. The locations include Austin, Texas; San Francisco; Boston; Charleston, South Carolina; Chicago; Cleveland; Louisville, Kentucky; and New York, with more locations due to be announced in the coming weeks.
The second line of effort focuses on establishing what DIU aims to make the fastest and most trusted accreditation portfolio in the department. Pearson said that work requires deep cybersecurity expertise, a measured approach to risk and the use of advanced artificial intelligence capabilities.
DIU plans to use technology to accelerate its authorization process, shorten timelines and increase throughput with fewer resources. “We plan to shift the risk management framework process to the left in prototype development and build cybersecure solutions that the services can more easily field,” Pearson said.
Pearson said earlier accreditation is central to increasing adoption of new systems. “Indexing toward accreditations for every program and sooner in development are critical to adoption,” she said.
The third line of effort covers test and evaluation and draws on DIU’s experience prototyping commercially derived technologies within the department’s developmental and operational test infrastructure. DIU is building an end-to-end testing approach for portfolio companies entering the prototype pipeline, with testing opportunities throughout the contract lifecycle.
The approach is intended to connect capability development with existing and emerging test infrastructure for both physical and digital applications. As the Bridge Program expands, Pearson said DIU will continue to rely on partnerships across the department, its experience developing new approaches and its focus on delivering available capabilities to warfighters.
