Rapid fielding, adaptation dominate discussions at SOF Week 2025
NewsMay 08, 2025
TAMPA, Florida. The need to rapidly field new technologies and quickly adapt to emerging threats dominated conversations at SOF Week 2025, with military leaders and industry representatives emphasizing the critical importance of shortening development timelines from years to months or even weeks.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth set the tone during his keynote address on Tuesday, highlighting the importance of rapid integration across the joint force.
"That rapid fielding, that rapid integration, that feedback loop is critical across the joint force," Hegseth said. "Today that means mortar and munitions, AI-enabled targeting platforms, and new counter-UAS systems."
Melissa Johnson, USSOCOM's acquisition executive, stressed during her keynote that speed is essential in today's technology-driven battlespace.
"It is critical ... that we adopt, we develop, we integrate, and we deliver advanced capabilities so that we can continue to meet the pace and stay at a competitive advantage," Johnson said.
The exhibition floor reflected this emphasis on rapid fielding, with numerous companies showcasing technologies designed for rapid deployment and adaptation. Many systems featured modular, open architectures allowing for quick updates and modifications as battlefield requirements change.
Johnson also highlighted USSOCOM's willingness to do what it takes to field systems faster.
"I will take that acquisition risk so that the operators don't have to take the operational risk, and we will work that through that life cycle," she stated.
The race to field cutting-edge systems like counter-drone technology and AI-enabled targeting platforms has accelerated as adversaries continue to demonstrate increasingly sophisticated capabilities. Multiple technology demonstrations at the event featured systems that could be rapidly deployed and updated in the field.
Hegseth praised special operations forces for their startup-like approach to innovation.
"You adopt advanced technologies early, you make them better, and... spread [them] to the rest of the joint force. You are willing to experiment and fail while learning from each failure and each success. We need you to keep doing that," he said.
Several industry exhibitors also emphasized the importance of power, storage, and computing capabilities – areas Johnson specifically identified as foundational to advanced systems.
"If we don't have a way to store all these advanced algorithms, we don't have a way to pass data quickly in this system of systems to close a kill chain, it's going to be really hard to win," Johnson said. "This is an area that we need investment in: power, storage, compute."
