ARLINGTON – Secretary of War Pete Hegseth approved the second round of appointments to the Science, Technology and Innovation Board (STIB) on Wednesday, growing the newly consolidated advisory body to 33 members and accelerating the Pentagon’s push for technological superiority. The STIB was formed earlier this year through the merger of the legacy Defense Science Board (DSB) and the Defense Innovation Board (DIB). The DSB, established in 1956 on the recommendation of the second Hoover Commission, has long provided independent civilian expert advice to the Department of Defense on scientific, technical, and research matters critical to national security. The more recent DIB, created in 2016, focused on injecting private-sector innovation practices, emerging technologies, and agile processes into Pentagon operations.
By combining the two, the STIB now operates as a single, streamlined advisory group that delivers unified recommendations directly to the Secretary, the Joint Chiefs, and senior Department of War leadership.
“Our warfighters can’t afford to wait. We are unifying our best scientific minds and our most innovative private-sector leaders into a single board built to provide clear answers, not more bureaucracy,” said Emil Michael, Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering, in the Department of War’s announcement on the STIB’s creation. This latest slate stands out for its depth of real-world national security and operational experience. Among the appointees is Christopher C. Miller, former Acting Secretary of Defense, retired Army Special Forces colonel, and Green Beret with multiple combat deployments. Miller also previously led the National Counterterrorism Center. James F. Geurts, who served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition in the first Trump administration and later as acting Under Secretary of the Navy, brings a proven track record of rapid acquisition reform and large-scale technology integration.
Joshua Steinman, a former Navy officer who served as Senior Director for Cyber on the National Security Council from 2017–2021, adds high-level White House experience in cyber policy, supply chain security, and strategic technology issues. These additions complement private-sector innovators like Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire, who has backed frontier companies in AI, space, and advanced computing, along with former DARPA Director Dr. Steven H. Walker and other Ph.D.-level experts in hypersonics, digital engineering, and emerging domains.
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The move reflects Secretary Hegseth’s aggressive modernization agenda. Since taking office, the Department of War has overhauled its slow-moving procurement system by redesignating it the Warfighting Acquisition System. Hegseth’s transformation has created a faster, more streamlined process aimed at rapidly delivering new capabilities to troops. The department has also expanded the use of commercial off-the-shelf technologies, increased reliance on flexible contracting tools known as Other Transaction Authorities, simplified overly rigid requirements, and introduced performance metrics that prioritize speed in getting equipment to the field.
The STIB’s focused mandate directly feeds into these reforms by enhancing the way the DoW intersects with generative AI, industrial base resilience, commercial space, cyber dominance, and biotechnology. This approach stands in sharp contrast to the Biden-era Department of Defense, which faced persistent challenges with fragmented advisory structures, overlapping committees that sometimes issued conflicting recommendations, and lengthy decision-making processes that slowed the delivery of new capabilities. According to the Government Accountability Office’s annual Weapon Systems Assessment, major defense acquisition programs took previous administrations almost 12 years on average to deliver initial capability to warfighters.
With this high-caliber board now fully operational, the Department of War is better positioned to out-innovate peer competitors in the technologies that will shape tomorrow’s battlefields.
Editor's Note: Thanks to President Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America's military.
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