A new immersive commercial acquisition program from the Defense Innovation Unit seeks to reduce barriers to transitioning new technologies from nontraditional vendors to military components by teaching service contracting professionals about the process.
Developed jointly by DIU and the Defense Acquisition University, the ICAP effort looks to address what the unit’s acquisition director called “a gap in understanding” surrounding the use of other transaction authority to procure and field commercial technology.
But the significance of the program could extend beyond the straightforward goal of educating an inaugural class of up to six participants, who are expected to be named next month. Rather, Cherissa Tamayori told Inside Defense in an interview today, ICAP could contribute to “better overall prototype efforts” and a more positive experience for the companies involved.
“What’s happening now is because there’s a lack of understanding and there’s been challenges transitioning some of these technologies, some of these innovative commercial companies are now questioning the viability of the defense market, and that’s significant,” she said.
“We need to make sure that we maintain a robust innovation base and defense industrial base and we don’t lose all the headway that we made in the past few years creating those partnerships, bridging the gap of understanding between these companies and the Department of Defense, as well as if we don’t move quick enough, we’re going to lose out on capabilities that are out there because these companies will stop [responding] to our solicitations.”
When DIU aims to transition emerging technology prototypes to full production deals to the services, Tamayori noted it’s often been difficult for acquisition officials “to understand what they’re receiving and to understand the process that went through to awarding the original prototype contract.”
That means, she added, included in many hand-offs of capability to a service-level team is “a lot of education” on the statutory requirements surrounding OTAs and what allows DOD components to “non-competitively procure, at scale, what we prototype.”
Before a technology is ready for transition, DIU employs a three-phase process that aims to quickly select prototype projects from a wide range of applicants, Tamayori said. It begins with a so-called “problem statement” and related solicitation to get a sense of what the commercial market could be for a potential solution, followed by a down-select phase that results in a round of company pitches, where vendors are asked to provide demonstrations of their proposed technology.
The final round is preceded by another down-select, and Tamayori said it’s at that point where DIU issues a formal request for prototype proposal and then works with a vendor to “collaboratively develop a statement of work” that lays out the ideal outcomes of a given project. Once that is completed, she noted, officials are “off and running with the prototyping process.”
Teaching other DOD acquisition officials about that process, Tamayori said, is currently happening “as needed,” but she hopes that the program’s creation will allow for it to be more “widely known and understood,” thereby encouraging others within the military to leverage DIU’s “ability to access these novel commercial technologies” and ease transition.
Through the 12-month program, which is set to kick off in October, the participants will attend OTA training through DAU and be assigned to DIU officers who are working on prototype projects, Tamayori said. Those selected will be assigned to one of the unit’s six technology areas: artificial intelligence, autonomy, cyber, energy, human systems and space.
While Tamayori didn’t share the costs associated with starting up the program, she characterized them as “minimal” for the first year because the entirety of ICAP is set to be virtual. That cost could increase going forward, she noted, as the program develops and expands.
One potential avenue for growth is to include other acquisition officials, “most likely starting with the program management career field,” she said.
As officials go through the program and bring lessons back to their service teams, Tamayori said she’s hopeful participants will develop “a more well-rounded” perspective. As a former contracting officer at the Naval Sea Systems Command who held other contracting posts in the service before coming to DIU, she said that experience gave her an understanding of “the motives of the prime contractors,” but she was less aware of smaller vendors’ points of view.
“It’ll create better overall prototype efforts because the government team will have a better understanding of all the influences at play,” she said.