This is a dynamic moment for the future of Western security and innovation. The United States maintains a technological and capability edge in certain areas of its national-security innovation ecosystem, but fundamental roadblocks and constraints to achieving its full potential remain.
The 2025 National Security Innovation Base (NSIB) Report Card, published by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute’s Center for Peace Through Strength, seeks to illuminate the progress of this vital ecosystem and its pressing challenges. Now in its third year, the NSIB Report Card is revealing important trends: where the United States is improving, where it is regressing, and where it is standing still—and therefore falling further behind.
The NSIB includes a range of actors, including national-security agencies and organizations, various research centers and laboratories, universities and academia, traditional defense primes, commercial-sector disruptors, venture capital, and the innovative systems of American allies and partners. This report card measures the health, effectiveness, and resilience of the NSIB ecosystem and proposes recommendations for improvement.
The latest edition of the NSIB Report Card finds that the United States has what it needs to secure its military, economic, and technological superiority: a free and open political system that empowers its best and brightest to innovate, a prosperous economic base, and a military that is the envy of the world. But the trends identified in this report card highlight glaring areas of weakness that whittle away at America’s advantage and provide openings for its adversaries. The pace and gravity of global competition demand decisive action to address these points of vulnerability and mobilize the full potential of the NSIB ecosystem.
McKinsey is pleased to collaborate with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute to provide the fact base to support this assessment. For the full report card, please click here.
