Prometheus Unbound

Abstract

"The United States Navy was founded in 1775, just as the First Industrial Revolution started. Consequently, the US Navy has matured in a vibrant, innovative technology environment throughout this and the three subsequent industrial revolutions. The US Navy has consistently maintained an innovative, forward-leaning posture, repeatedly and progressively adopting innovative technologies into operational service. Ironclads, dreadnoughts, naval aviation, nuclear power, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, guided missiles, jet airplanes, and phased array and digital radars are the highlights of the US Navy's skill at technology adoption. While typically innovative and progressive, the US Navy has entered a new, regressive phase, trailing its strategic maritime competitors in adopting technology innovations, like autonomous vehicles, quantum computing, hypersonics, and other groundbreaking maritime innovations.

This project assessed two centuries and three industrial revolutions of the US Navy's innovative technology adoption practices. It merges those organizational learning and innovation adoption principles with leading modern organizational theorists and practical innovators into a single conceptual framework that uniquely applies to the United States Navy.

This novel conceptual framework merges current organizational learning frameworks and behavioral models with time-proven and successful US Naval empirical practices. They explicitly define principal US Navy organizational practices that are internally culturally acceptable, performance-proven, and not overly complex, creating, in effect, a road map, a leaders' guide, for future US Navy technology adoption techniques and organizations for the 21st century."