Roper touts new programs' potential to shake up defense industrial base

By Sara Sirota  / February 21, 2020

Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper is eyeing the service's new approach to shared network testing, commercial start-ups and even the flying car industry as potential game-changers to the Pentagon's traditional relationship with contractors and the global technology market.

At a media roundtable today, Roper touted the new directions that the Advanced Battle Management System, Air Force Ventures and Agility Prime programs are taking the service in this year.

ABMS -- the Air Force's program to connect shooters and sensors on a shared network to achieve joint all-domain command and control -- is bypassing the traditional approach to major defense acquisition programs in order to prioritize continuous learning via technology demonstrations every four months.

Roper hopes this method will incentivize industry to prioritize "upgradability" and "adaptability" to achieve open architectures.

"What'll be really cool for ABMS is when we start going from demonstrating to competition and source selection because the way we plan to do it is not to just have a one-fly and then you're done . . . but we will actually force vendors that are competing to make significant changes between the four month cycles," he said.

In partnership with the Army, Navy and U.S. Northern Command, Eglin Air Force Base, FL, hosted the inaugural demonstration in December. While that event saw mostly successes, Roper wants the next event, to be held in April, to have an equal number of failures and triumphs.

The second demonstration -- which is also expected to have U.S. Strategic Command and the Space Force participate -- will include activities at Eglin AFB, Nellis AFB, NV, Yuma Proving Ground, AZ, and White Sands Missile Range, NM.

It's "going to be massive -- with live-fire exercises like taking down [an unmanned aerial vehicle], a cruise missile shoot-down, activities taking place all across the country," Roper said.

The Air Force's unique approach to ABMS means the typical requirements process is different too. Rather than having a big analysis of alternatives and one grand concept of operations, the ABMS team is striving to be more flexible and responsive to the testing events.

"What the Air Force, Space Force and hopefully the other services will rally around is that you can develop much better requirements and much better CONOPS if you're iterating in a loop that's getting feedback from demonstrations," Roper said.

ABMS relies on development of emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence and machine learning, and Roper's pushing for more outreach this year to start-up companies that can provide needed capabilities too.

At the South by Southwest conference in Austin, TX, next month, Roper said the service will officially launch its new strategy to the Air Force Ventures program, which will give contracts of varying sizes to early-stage companies with the goal of building "a different kind of industry base, not one that becomes a defense prime but one that can become a dual-use company."

He wants the Air Force annually to make about 1,000 awards worth $50,000, 300 awards worth $1 million to $3 million and 30 to 40 "big bets" on ideas that have the potential to change the service's mission set.

The goal, Roper explained, is for the service to act like an investor while still being a government entity that doesn't own any equity.

"In the past, companies that had military money were devalued by commercial investors and what's great the first year in Air Force Ventures, private investors, the big names, are raising the evaluation of companies who have received an Air Force Ventures contract," he said.

He said companies are disillusioned with China, particularly the country's handling of events in Hong Kong, and added, "The Air Force is coming in at a time to fill the void."

Over the past four months, the service has brought in more than $400 million of private investment into companies, Roper said, and he'd like to have a target of pulling billions of dollars into contractors "working across the commercial-military divide."

With an eye on China, Roper's looking for the service to play a bigger role in commercial markets and the global technology landscape too, such as via the Agility Prime program that's intended to take on the electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing flying car space.

He hopes the value proposition of obtaining safety certifications, rather than research and development funding, will attract companies to work with the Air Force. The service will release a request for proposals Feb. 25 to kick off a "challenge-based acquisition plan," he said.

"We'll have different durations of flight and payloads that have to be carried and if you pass the hurdle then you'll move further down the wickets of getting safety certified by the Air Force and moving on to a procurement contract and we're working with our operators right now on what missions we might do," Roper said.

A variety of missions are under consideration -- pilot rescue, logistics, mobility and security, such as at a nuclear base where airmen would benefit from having the capability to move fast between sites that are spread out.

Roper wants the Agility Prime program to help the Defense Department avoid the mistakes it made by not investing early in the small drone industry.

"The Pentagon didn't take a proactive stance on it and now most of that supply chain has moved to China," he said.

"If we had realized that commercial trend and had shown that the Pentagon is willing to pay a higher price point for a trusted supply chain drone, we probably could've kept part of the market here and not have to go through the security issues we do now when someone wants to use a foreign-made drone at some kind of Air Force or service event," he added.