Abstract
Technology as a source of military innovation is hot stuff within the U.S. defense establishment right now. Anyone following the flow of information coming from the U.S. armed services and the Department of Defense will have noticed this. This is especially true for readers of War on the Rocks, who will have consumed a steady diet of commentaries on innovation and technology. Nina Kollars brilliantly noted that innovation makes policy makers swoon and weapons developers salivate. As such, innovation and “breakthrough” or “revolutionary” technologies is a match made in heaven. The fit is both easy to see and easy to communicate to stakeholders such as the public, Congress, service branches, and industry. However, the propagation of revolutionary technology and innovation is often cursory. I offer a critique on the current discourse on revolutionary technology by presenting two pitfalls that distort the conversation and diminish the prospect for action.