Elon Musk , the billionaire businessman who wants to literally die on Mars after he puts an electric auto in every American ’s service department , just had a confluence at the Pentagon with the US Secretary of Defense . But neither Musk nor Secretary Ash Carter will disclose what they talked about .
“ Elon Musk is one of the most innovative minds in this country and the secretary , as you sleep with , has been reaching out to a number of members of the technology community to get their ideas , their feedback , ascertain out what ’s go on in the public of innovation , ” Peter Cook , the Pentagon ’s press secretary , said on Monday .
Today ’s meeting was focused on “ innovation ” according to a Defense Department voice who spoketo CNN , but no further point were give . Musk has a fiscal interestingness in solar powerfulness and electric cars , but if I had to take a barbarian surmisal , Carter and Musk probably talked a fair bit about SpaceX , the entrepreneur ’s private space company . SpaceX already has an $ 82 million contract with the US Air Force .
The Pentagon has been actively courting private business in Silicon Valley over the preceding class to instal more ties with the defense diligence , even open up an power on the West Coast under the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental ( DIUx ) program . But the initiative has been off to a stumbling start . They ’re already try out to overhaul the office in an attempt to reduce through crimson taping and streamline contracts .
“ We ’re taking a page flat from the Silicon Valley playbook , ” Carter say at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View , according to a novel report inBloomberg . “ We ’re launch DIUx 2.0 . ”
In the past , Carter has talked about a “ backing line , ” which is really nothing new when it comes to the line of technology transfer . But it ’s clear an area where the military is currently bogged down .
We often forget that Silicon Valley was built on the spine of US military budgets cranking out weapon of war and the microchips that would guide them to their destinations . But the military has arguably been worse at helping to fund double use applied science than it was during the nineties , when we saw the US government help start the process to commercialize thing like the internet and GPS .
If anyone can avail the armed services kill more mass ( and perchance get Americans some burnished new toys in the process ) , I trust Elon “ Iron Man in real life ” Musk can do it .
Update June 9 , 11:20am : Musktweetedthat the meeting was about a “ fly metal suit , ” so make of thatwhat you will . He ’s either joking about all the Iron Man references , or he ’s building a Wizard of Oz - vogue Tin Man for the Navy .
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