Not in my experience (JIEDDO/Paladin in OIF/OEF). The R&D lab seems like a peacetime concept. All the ideas, all the experimentation, all the hacks that turned

Not in my experience (JIEDDO/Paladin in OIF/OEF). The R&D lab seems like a peacetime concept. All the ideas, all the experimentation, all the hacks that turned into programs, came from the field, often lab guys that got sent forward. The labs had their part for sending new toys, but the pace was so much faster for hacking things together at the front lines.