The most used and least known RDT&E tool...(drum roll) JCTD!
In the long list of highly important and useful tools within the RDT&E toolbox, the one that is by far the most impactful, been around the longest, and is still heavily utilized to this day is the Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD). As it is organized through and by the command staff levels of the COCOMs and higher levels of the military, most tactical and operational levels of the military don't see or interact with these events. As such, most "innovation" personnel are very unfamiliar with the JCTD process, and often in the pursuit of technologies from the tactical edge fail to consider this option in R&D planning.
In this new age of Operational Imperatives, wartime priorities, and major strategic importance put on the near term development of warfighting capabilities through technological implementation, the JCTD has a renewed importance in the link between R&D and the operational force. DAU hosts an excellent presentation that the OSD JCTD office provided back in 2020 to fully detail the full program and process (link below). The prototype capabilities that come out of JCTD's provide an excellent opportunity for ongoing utilization in that grey area where battlefield T&E bleeds over and leads into COCOM O&M utilization. The JCTD Program is often viewed by COCOMs as a primary means to rapidly develop, assess, and transition time-sensitive capability solutions into operations. I view this as basically mandatory reading for COCOM innovation personnel, as well as anyone else not already familiar with the process.
