Small businesses and nontraditional defense firms locked out of classified programs now have several new routes in, as the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit tests ways to break the clearance logjam that has kept them on the sidelines. The effort runs through DIU's new Bridge Program, which launched in August 2026 and, according to Federal News Network, is spearheading multiple initiatives to pull commercial companies into classified work. The pilots include a three-year Top Secret clearance experiment, a prime-led program to clear up to 20 small firms in 150 days or less, and a network of portable secure facilities.
The target is a problem every small contractor eyeing classified work knows well. As Federal News Network's Rachel S. Cohen put it, the department wants to address "a catch-22 that has plagued businesses for decades: Companies need a facility security clearance to work on classified programs, but they need to work on classified programs to get that clearance."
Officials argue that letting a wider range of contractors into the military's most advanced programs could bring more innovation and lower costs. Jerry McGinn, a defense industry expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, framed the tension directly: "It's just a balance of, how do you protect classified information but widen the aperture so you get more companies to provide capabilities that support the national defense?"
What the Bridge Program Promises
DIU's own Bridge Program page sets an ambitious bar. "The Bridge Team will facilitate co-use classified facilities nationwide, slash cyber authorization timelines by half, and enable agile, end-to-end capabilities for young companies desperate to demonstrate," the page states. DIU's latest-announcements page lists a Director Memo titled "Establishment of the Bridge Program," dated Aug. 19, 2026.
The program sits inside DIU's Strategic Initiatives Group and uses DIU portfolio companies as a test bed. That detail matters for anyone hoping to sign up tomorrow: DIU says the Bridge services "are currently offered only to DIU portfolio companies," while the unit works with partners across the department to scale and adopt the solutions enterprise-wide.
The page describes three focus areas aimed at what DIU calls critical bottlenecks around security clearances, access to classified spaces, technology accreditations and testing:
- Classified Infrastructure as-a-Service: a co-work model for on-demand classified sites, systems and services "in over a dozen cities across the country."
- Commercial Technology Accreditation: Risk Management Framework support for DIU projects, with the goal of cyber-secure accreditation of hardware and software systems "within weeks."
- Integrated Test Team: a testing pipeline that runs developmental and operational test and evaluation concurrently to move technology from prototype to the field.
How the Top Secret Clearance Experiment Flips the Pitch
The most unusual piece is a three-year experiment DIU launched in September that grants Top Secret clearances to technology developers so they can pitch solutions to classified problems, rather than waiting for the government to come to them. Instead of an open-ended call for ideas, the department will seek input on specific topics and award prototyping contracts for proposals it likes, Federal News Network reported.
The bar remains high. Companies must qualify for a clearance and be able to maintain it to receive a contract, and DIU explicitly bars bidders backed by "adversarial sources."
So far, the program has sought counter-drone systems that protect maritime infrastructure such as ports, harbors and naval forces at lower cost than current systems. DIU paired that solicitation with a call for private capital firms able to spend at least $100 million to fund the designs. The department sees these investors as a "financial bridge" that can help projects move forward outside the yearslong federal budget cycle.
DIU explained the logic in its own words: "It can take two years between when the department decides to buy a capability and when it actually initiates the competitive acquisition process." The unit called that "lost time that could be used by future awardees to dial in the technology, set up manufacturing for scale and speed and mature their commercial side of the business."
Can a Prime Clear 20 Small Firms in 150 Days?
A second program, posted on the Defense Department-backed prototyping marketplace GoColosseum, sets up what Federal News Network described as a buddy system. One DoD prime contractor will shepherd up to 20 small businesses and nontraditional players through an accelerated process to obtain temporary clearances in 150 days or less. The group then spends 60 days in technical discussions on a classified issue.
The department wants a playbook out of the exercise that tracks cost, process and timeline so the approach can be repeated.
The pilot targets the front end of a slow process. A facility clearance requires sponsorship by the government or a cleared prime, after which the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency vets the applicant's organizational structure, business integrity, foreign ties and employee clearance levels, along with corporate paperwork on strict deadlines, Federal News Network reported, citing the law firm Holland and Knight.
Portable SCIFs for Firms Without Their Own Vault
Clearance is only half the problem. Building a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility can cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, and many small businesses lack the money or space. A "possessing" clearance lets a contractor handle classified information at its own site; a "non-possessing" clearance allows classified work only at facilities owned by the government or another company.
DIU's Secure Space Network would deploy portable SCIFs across the country so holders of non-possessing clearances have more places to work.
The other rules still apply. Contractors entering classified spaces must keep unclassified parts of the business physically separate and avoid hiring Chinese nationals. McGinn said that is not an insurmountable ask: "There's got to be a contracting and business pathway forward."
What It Means for Contractors
For small and nontraditional firms, the near-term opening is narrow but real. Bridge services currently go only to DIU portfolio companies, so for those services the most direct path is winning DIU work first. Firms with relevant technology should watch for topic-specific calls under the Top Secret clearance experiment, starting with the maritime counter-drone topic, and remember that eligibility depends on qualifying for and maintaining a clearance with no backing from adversarial sources.
Private capital firms with at least $100 million to deploy have a defined role as the "financial bridge" on that first topic, which could make investor alignment part of the competitive case.
Primes have a stake too. The GoColosseum pilot puts one prime in the role of sponsor and mentor for up to 20 smaller firms, and the playbook it produces could shape how future sponsorship works. Small firms should identify which primes are positioned to sponsor and start foreign-ownership, facility-separation and hiring reviews now, since the sources describe those requirements as still applying.
The key test is whether these efforts can scale beyond pilots. Until they do, the 150-day clearance timeline and the shared classified sites remain experiments rather than department-wide policy.
