From Submarine Commander To Naval Innovation

Rear Admiral (Ret.) Lorin Selby is interviewed by Steve Blank. Selby is the former Chief of Naval Research at the Office of Naval Research (ONR). Established in 1946, ONR serves as the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ premier science and technology organization, dedicated to fostering innovative solutions that ensure technological superiority.

Joe Felter also provides special remarks.

Key Takeaways

• Reimagining Naval Power Through Small, Agile, and Many

  Rather than pursuing incremental improvements, Selby advocated a step-change in naval warfare through distributed unmanned systems and sensors—a “hedge strategy” developed through experimental battle problems in 2021 and brainstorming sessions that demonstrated how networked platforms could find targets and pass targeting data to manned systems.

• The Requirements Process Impedance Mismatch

  Pentagon requirements processes, designed for large, complex systems like submarines, are stuck in 1985. They produce rigid specifications that take years to execute—fundamentally incompatible with startup innovation cycles and the rapid iteration required for software-defined systems and emerging technologies.

• Startup Fragility Meets Defense Timelines

  As a VC, Selby’s biggest surprise was discovering that most defense-tech startups have only 6–12 months of runway, while Pentagon budget cycles take 2–3 years—creating a “valley of death” in which promising technologies die before government funding arrives. Bridging this gap requires either creative commercial revenue or faster movement of government capital.

• Trusting Teams to See Over the Horizon

  Selby attributes his strategic thinking to pushing responsibility down to trusted teams rather than sprinting through action items like his peers—creating the breathing room to look beyond the hall and across the horizon, while others remained buried in immediate operational demands.