Techlink connects military inventions, firms
Private companies are often able to use military innovations.
Military innovations are often the perfect launching pad for commercial businesses far outside military base fences.
For that reason, Nicholas Ripplinger, founder of Dayton’s Battle Sight Technologies, doesn’t see TechLink as just another program.
Neither does Timothy Shaw, president and chief operating officer of Riverside’s GlobalFlyte Inc.
TechLink — which calls itself the U.S. military’s sole national “partnership intermediary” for technology transfers to private companies — helped Ripplinger, Shaw and their companies get launched. The organization does the same for dozens of companies across the nation.
Just in fiscal 2018, TechLink, based at Montana State University, facilitated 91 technology license agreements across the Department of Defense (DoD) , including 48 from the Air Force, 28 from the Navy and 15 from the Army.
Ripplinger was able to get his business rolling with a mil- itary idea: a reusable glow stick that warfighters and emergency responders can write with, leaving marks or slashes on walls or doors to signify that they have checked an area or moved in a certain direction.
The marks are invisible to people without night vision equipment.
“With TechLink, we went directly to the Air Force,” Ripplinger said recently. TechLink played a “huge role” in acting behind the scenes, cutting through red tape and helping with the “waiting game,” he said.