Success factors for urgent technology insertion into military systems of systems

New or improved technologies are frequently inserted into existing military capabilities (socio-technical systems of systems) in order to address emerging threats or to exploit latest scientific and technological developments. Urgent technology insertion projects, which are aimed at addressing critical capability gaps, pose a particular challenge for Defence organisations as any delays and/or suboptimal execution may negatively impact on mission success, potentially resulting in the loss of life. As a result, identifying the success factors for timely and effective insertion of urgently required technologies is imperative. Based on a one-year-long ethnographic study of urgent technology insertion project strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the Australian Defence Organisation (ADO), this paper presents eight success factors for urgent technology insertion and uses them to evaluate a recent case study.