87 Spring 2025 Proceedings Strategic Research and Development Positioning to Remain Relevant in a Dynamic Business Environment by retired coast Guard capt aL arseNauLt Technical Director Research and Development Center U.S. Coast Guard T he Coast Guard is pulled in many directions to support its 11 missions. Financial and personnel resources are always stretched to their limits and the recruitment of new members is ongoing. How does a tactical organization take a step back to think strategi- cally and consider problems five, 10, or 20 years down the road? How does the organization embrace and lever- age its small strategic research and development (R&D) program. Positioning a strategic R&D program to remain rel- evant in a dynamic business environment requires a focused and deliberate approach. How does the Coast Guard Research and Development Center (RDC) remain relevant? • We hire the best and brightest talent we can find and maintain a professional staff of research engi- neers, scientists, analysts, and technicians. • We stay informed about market trends and contin- uously monitor these trends, customer preferences, and the activities of its sister laboratories—the Department of Defense (DoD), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Customs and Border Protection, among them—to identify emerging opportunities and anticipate future chal- lenges. • We align R&D with Coast Guard strategy, including Deputy Commandant for Operations and Deputy Commandant for Mission Support research priori- ties to remain in lockstep with long-term goals and objectives. • We leverage partnerships and collaborations to access new technologies, ideas, and expertise to help expand the scope of the R&D program and increase its impact. • We establish a flexible and agile R&D program to ensure both strategic and emergent needs of the service can be met. This includes adopting an iter- ative R&D process, breaking down projects into smaller components, and regularly reviewing and adjusting priorities. • We foster a learning culture to remain on top of our game ensuring the program remains relevant and adaptable. This involves promoting knowledge- sharing, providing opportunities for learning and development, and fostering a culture of experi- mentation. • We allocate our scarce resources to provide the best opportunity to transition our research to meet the needs of the operational Coast Guard. • We strive to be an employer of choice, establishing an environment where out-of-the-box thinking is rewarded. The agility of our R&D program has come to light recently as we transition our portfolio execution, portfo- lio development processes, and organizational structure to better support strategic research and development. Rather than executing a portfolio consisting of 40 to 60 independent research activities, we are reorganiz- ing those activities under larger enduring research pro- grams including: Autonomy: The strategic application of automation and autonomous technologies to advance the capabilities of physical, virtual, and other systems. Integration of autonomy/autonomous systems with legacy assets and infrastructure also comprises a key focus. Unique expertise will also include how autonomy may be used by other maritime stakeholders and/or adversaries, how that use will impact the service, and how the service will need to adapt to maintain a com- petitive edge. This program’s transition goal is to pro- vide clear opportunities for Coast Guard adoption and incorporation of autonomous technology across its oper- ational missions and support functions, as well as how the Coast Guard will interact with autonomous systems used by industry and the public throughout the Marine Transportation System (MTS). Connectivity: Traditional command, control, com- munications, computers, cyber, and intelligence focus
