By Tim Morrison
Over the past twenty-five years, I have had the opportunity to see America’s national security ecosystem from nearly every angle — on Capitol Hill, in the Executive Branch (including the White House), and in the private sector (including five years with a major defense prime). I have seen the public and private sectors at work in defense tech and defense acquisition businesses. Through my more than two decades of experience, I’ve learned that America does not suffer from a shortage of good ideas from brilliant innovators. We have suffered from an inability to move enough of those ideas from commercial industry and tech through the bureaucratic labyrinth to survive the valley of death.
We are more than a generation beyond the “peace dividend” of the early 90’s when consolidation of the defense industrial base was the intended goal of a prior Administration. We are no longer primarily focused on stateless terrorist networks. We now face a peer rival as productive and technologically sophisticated as we are with a web of partners of convenience who are aligned on countering our values and power.
We are seeing a concerted effort across government, private capital, and American innovators to align around the need to revolutionize the defense industrial base. This is the partnership that made for the success of the Arsenal of Democracy. If we fail to turn this moment into durable industrial capacity and fielded capability, we risk losing our technological advantage, weakening deterrence, and missing the opportunity to rebuild parts of America’s industrial base that have eroded over decades.
This moment in our nation’s history and our country’s anticipated technology needs over the coming decades is what drew me to Washington Harbour Partners. The firm backs companies solving consequential problems for America’s economic and national security and works alongside them to help turn promising technologies into scalable businesses and deployed capabilities. Its portfolio spans many of the areas that will define the future Joint Force, including AI, space, cyber, autonomy, critical minerals, advanced manufacturing, and energy.
What stood out most to me was Washington Harbour Partners’ thesis that successful national security companies need more than capital — they need partners who understand the mission, the customer, the acquisition environment, and what it takes to scale.
This approach closely aligns with the work I have pursued throughout my career: identify capability gaps, rebuild the defense industrial base, strengthen American deterrence, and ensure it is translated into ensuring the American warfighter never has a fair fight. The next generation of American prosperity will depend on government, industry, innovators, and capital working together with greater speed, purpose, and mission.
Partnership between tech, capital, and the Joint Force is our core value at Washington Harbour Partners; it’s why America will continue to succeed. It’s why I’m excited to join this team.