The Insurgent Protocol: Engineering Internal Advocacy to Bypass Bureaucratic Inertia
- Jordan Clayton
- Sep 25
- 7 min read
A predictable and fatal sequence of events plays out annually in the defense innovation ecosystem. A commercial technology executive successfully develops a product that offers an order-of-magnitude improvement over the legacy Program of Record. They secure a meeting with a General Officer. They deliver a flawless demonstration. They receive the coveted "head nod" and a challenge coin.
Then, silence.
Six months later, the company enters the "Valley of Death." The technology was superior, the meeting was successful, yet the contract never materialized.
The failure mode here is not technical; it is structural. The executive made the single most common error in federal sales: confusing Access with Adoption. They focused their energy on the "Air War"—the high-level pitches to flag officers and the bureaucratic maneuvering with contracting officials—while neglecting the "Ground War".
In the Department of Defense (DoD), the most critical asset for a non-traditional entrant is not intellectual property, a contract vehicle, or a slide deck. It is the Internal Insurgent.
This individual is not merely a "customer" or a "user." They are a distinct archetype within the bureaucracy: an advocate inside the wire possessing the operational pain, the rank, and the political capital to fight for a new capability. They are willing to stake their professional reputation on your solution. They will walk your white paper through the Pentagon E-Ring, identify the correct appropriation ("color of money"), and fight battles in classified conference rooms you are not cleared to enter.
Finding, vetting, and arming this Insurgent is the primary objective of a defense capture campaign. Everything else is noise.
The Strategic Context: Why You Need an Insurgent
To understand the necessity of the Insurgent, one must understand the limitations of the Program Executive Office (PEO).
New entrants often rush to pitch the PEO or the Contracting Officer (KO). This is a targeting error. These entities are "shoppers," not "deciders." They act as execution agents for a requirement defined elsewhere. A PEO is handed a "shopping list" (the validated requirement) and a wallet (the budget). If a solution—no matter how brilliant—is not on that list, they legally cannot procure it.
The goal, therefore, is to identify the individual who writes the list.
The Insurgent is the mechanism by which a commercial capability transcends "vendor push" and becomes "government pull." They are the bridge between the tactical reality of the battlefield and the fiscal reality of the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) cycle.
The Weapon System: The Urgent Needs Statement
A true Insurgent is distinguished from a passive supporter by their ability to generate the "Golden Ticket" of defense acquisition: the Urgent Needs Statement.
Every branch of the Armed Services maintains a formal, statutory "skip-the-line" process designed for scenarios where a critical capability gap threatens mission failure or loss of life. When an Insurgent generates one of these documents, it acts as a flare in the night sky. It creates an immediate, unfunded requirement that forces the bureaucracy to realign resources.
Understanding the lexicon of these documents is a prerequisite for identifying the right Insurgent:
United States Marine Corps: The Urgent Universal Needs Statement (U-UNS) or the Deliberate Universal Needs Statement (D-UNS). This is often the fastest mechanism in the DoD.
United States Army: The Operational Needs Statement (ONS). This document flows from the unit commander up to Army Headquarters (HQDA) to trigger rapid fielding.
United States Air Force: The Urgent Operational Need (UON). Used to address capability gaps that impact air superiority or pilot survivability.
Joint Force (Combatant Commands): The Joint Urgent Operational Need (JUON) or Joint Emergent Operational Need (JEON). These are generated by COCOM Commanders (e.g., CENTCOM, INDOPACOM) and carry immense weight with Congress.
These documents are the "Holy Grail." They serve as a formal, user-generated requirement and a demand signal for funding, fused into a single artifact. The Insurgent’s role is to be sufficiently convinced of the capability to initiate this paperwork. The vendor’s role is to reduce the friction of that initiation to zero.
Targeting Methodology: Identifying the Insurgent
Insurgents are rarely found in the exhibit halls of Washington D.C. trade shows. They are found at the point of friction. Locating them requires a shift in targeting methodology from "Sales" to "Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield."
Strategy 1: Follow the Mission, Not the Money The first instinct of the commercial executive is to follow the budget. This leads to the PEO. The counter-intuitive strategy is to follow the pain.
The Target Profile: Look for the frustrated E-6 (Staff Sergeant/Technical Sergeant) who is forced to execute complex missions with obsolete technology. Look for the O-3 (Captain/Lieutenant) or O-4 (Major/Lt. Commander) who has recently returned from deployment and possesses visceral knowledge of the capability gap.
The Location: Engage at the tactical edge. Prioritize user-level exercises like Project Convergence (Army) or Trident Spectre (Special Forces). Go to the training centers like the National Training Center (NTC) or 29 Palms. This is where operators are paid to break things and find solutions. If you solve a problem in the dirt, you win the advocate.
Strategy 2: The "Dual-Hatted" Officer The ideal Insurgent possesses a specific career profile: the "Dual-Hatted" advocate. This is an individual who combines fresh "ground truth" with bureaucratic authority.
The Profile: An officer or Senior NCO who has recently rotated from an operational unit (Hat 1) into a requirements billet at the Pentagon, a Combatant Command, or a Center of Excellence (Hat 2).
The Value: This individual feels the pain of the operator but holds the pen of the bureaucrat. They know how to translate a "good idea" into a formal Capability Development Document (CDD) and walk it down the hall to the resource sponsor holding the RDT&E budget. They are the translator between your technology and the government's checkbook.
Operational Execution: Arming the Champion
Once the Insurgent is identified, the engagement model shifts. You are no longer selling to them; you are selling through them. They become your internal sales force. Your responsibility is to arm them with the ammunition required to win the internal firefight.
1. The "Ghostwritten" White Paper: Do not provide a marketing slick sheet. Provide a "Solution Brief" or white paper that is drafted in the government’s own voice.
The Tactic: Map your solution directly to a specific Line of Effort (LOE) in the National Defense Strategy (NDS)or the Service’s specific doctrine (e.g., Force Design 2030 for the USMC). Use their acronyms. Reference their strategic pain points. You are essentially writing the "Solution" section of their future requirements document for them. Make it a copy-paste exercise.
2. The "Hero" Data An Insurgent cannot advocate based on intuition; they need empirical evidence to survive scrutiny.
The Tactic: Get the capability into a "Battle Lab" or a field experimentation event. The objective is not just the demo; it is the Government-Authored Test Report. An unbiased, third-party assessment on government letterhead is the ultimate weapon. It allows the Insurgent to say, "I didn't say it works; the Naval Warfare Center said it works".
3. Narrative Control: "Their" Idea Bureaucracy resists external ideas. The most successful Insurgents frame the solution as the realization of their own vision.
The Tactic: "Major, we heard your brief at [Event X] regarding distributed logistics. We built this tool specifically to enable the vision you articulated." By anchoring the solution to their stated problem, you transform them from a buyer into an architect of the solution.
Asymmetric Tactics: Scrappy Methods for Access
When the front door of the PEO is locked, the Insurgent Protocol requires asymmetric maneuvers to gain entry.
The "Demo Day" Pivot Industry days and pitch competitions are often "Innovation Theater." The VIPs in the front row are there for the photo op. The real target is the Aide-de-Camp or the mid-level program officer taking notes in the back.
The Maneuver: Ignore the crowd. Find the silent observer who is actually listening. The goal of the Demo Day is not to win the prize; it is to secure the 1-on-1 meeting at their facility the following week.
The CRADA End-Run If procurement walls are impenetrable, flank them via the Research Labs (AFRL, NRL, ARL).
The Maneuver: Pitch a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). This is a no-cost collaboration agreement, not a sales contract. It gets your technology "inside the wire" and validated by government scientists. That validation becomes the ammunition you hand to your future procurement champion.
The LinkedIn "Intelligence Prep" Identify a specific unit facing a specific problem (e.g., a Marine Littoral Regiment dealing with contested logistics).
The Maneuver: Locate the logistics officers (S-4) or Ops officers (S-3) on LinkedIn. Do not pitch. Ask: "I am engineering a solution for [Problem X]. As an operator, what are the specific failure points you see in the field?"This is intelligence gathering. The intel is priceless, and the conversation often reveals the Insurgent.
From Champion to Program of Record
A 10x product is merely the ticket to the stadium; it does not get you on the field. The victory condition in defense acquisition is achieved only when an Internal Insurgent believes in the capability sufficiently to stake their career on its adoption.
Finding, vetting, and arming this champion is not a sales activity; it is an intelligence operation. It requires a profound understanding of mission culture, statutory authority, and the bureaucratic battlefield.
We do not guess at the internal dynamics of the DoD; we map them. At DualSight, our team consists of former operators and insiders who have served as the very Insurgents you seek. We provide the Stakeholder Influence Mapping to locate your champion, the Strategic Narrative Engineering to arm them, and the Acquisition Vector Strategy to turn their advocacy into a Program of Record.
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