The JCTD Program started as the Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration Program in 1995 and became the JCTD Program in 2006. The change in 2006 reflected an increased emphasis on meeting urgent warfighter needs by accelerating the execution of JCTDs and an increased focus on transition. However, the basic tenets of the program remained the same:

• JCTDs were identified and prioritized by the combatant command and addressed their priority needs.
• JCTDs worked the joint, coalition, and interagency shortfalls or “seams.”
• Worked “inside the Program Objective Memorandum” unlike traditional acquisition—time is money and costs lives. Typically JCTDs takes two to three years from start to fielding.
• Partner funds received: $1 to $2 for every $1 we commit to a JCTD.
• Unique team structure of JCTDs:
  • Operational, technical, and transition managers all on one intergrated team

Between 1995 and 2006, over 250 projects were initiated. Notable successes included the Predator and Global Hawk in 1995, Link 16 in 1998, the Standoff Precision Guided Munitions in 2005, and the Persistent Ground Surveillance System in 2010.

Starting in 2014 and with the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the focus of the JCTD Program has shifted from rapid fielding to meet urgent warfighter needs to addressing the more strategic priorities of the Department of Defense. Starting in 2015, the JCTD program will primarily initiate projects in support of the four DASD(EC&P) focus areas.