THE Pentagon has long indulged in highly polished technological systems that are the product of many years of bureaucratic wheel-spinning, grinding meetings and wish-list overkill. But those soul-deadening procedures have come under intense criticism for turning creative people away from innovation for national security.

“Innovations threaten the establishment, and the reaction is often to get rid of the person promoting the innovation,” said Jay M. Cohen, the under secretary for research and development in the Department of Homeland Security. Even when a military official advocates a new technological system, added Mr. Cohen, formerly chief of the Office of Naval Research, he or she runs the risk of being punished by resentful officers, protective of their turf.

The military’s appetite for expensive, gold-plated systems still exists, but soldiers increasingly want their civilian technology partners to deliver solutions quickly to the field, even if the devices are far from perfected. That is partly because changing conditions in the Iraq war have raised demand for new gadgets and gizmos, even in tiny batches.

“This is a major shift in outlook, and I believe it is a permanent shift,” said Mark Sherman, who oversees efforts by BBN Technologies of Cambridge, Mass., a supplier of new technologies to the military since 1948. His advice to civilian innovators seeking military sales is this: “Do it quick, and make it cheap because conditions change.”