"It's critically important that we understand that during this crisis the [Defense Industrial Base] is vulnerable to adversarial capital, so we need to ensure companies can stay in business without losing their technology," said Ellen Lord.

Lord also detailed a first event next month focused on drones for the department's new Trusted Capital Marketplace.

The marketplace is meant to help "small, innovative companies that, frankly, don't either have the resources or the sophistication in terms of the contacts to reach sources of capital."