DOD Eyes OTA Award for Industrial Base Policy Consortium
The Department of Defense’s Washington Headquarters Services is soliciting comments and recommendations as it plans to award an other transaction agreement to an organization to create and oversee a consortium that will help DOD accelerate access to commercial technologies.
The WHS acquisition directorate expects the industrial base policy consortium to help the manufacturing, capability expansion and investment prioritization directorate address defense supply chain issues, commercialize research and development efforts, sustain critical production, develop the industrial workforce and scale emerging technology platforms in support of the defense industrial base, according to a presolicitation notice published Thursday.
WHS envisions the consortium to enable MCEIP to leverage novel technologies from nontraditional defense contractors and nonprofit research institutions, speed up the acquisition process, increase competition and improve engagement with industry and NPRIs.
According to the notice, the consortium manager should come up with an agile approach to facilitate the award of projects and come up with a model that will advance the diversification of sources to broaden the defense industrial base and pursue procurement actions that keep up with commercial emerging technologies, among other components.
The consortium should have the expertise to address the critical sectors within DIB: kinetic capabilities; energy storage and batteries; castings and forgings; microelectronics; critical chemicals and minerals; small unmanned aircraft systems; rare earth elements; critical materials; submarine industrial base; space industrial base; and biomanufacturing.
FOCUS
The Manufacturing, Capability Expansion, and Investment Prioritization Directorate (MCEIP) falls under the Defense Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for Industrial Base Resilience (IBR) and the Assistant Secretary of Defense (ASD) Industrial Base Policy (IBP) within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment (OUSD(A&S)). Following a reorganization within IBP in November 2022, MCEIP includes the Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III Program, now known as DPA Investments (DPAI); Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS), now known as Innovation Capability and Modernization (ICAM); and Global Investment and Economic Security.
As the global pandemic exposed the vulnerability of the weakened United States (U.S.) domestic supply chains and highlighted the need to onshore or bolster the production of items deemed critical for national security, the core funding being executed by DPAI and ICAM has recently increased dramatically, and the MCEIP budget in Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 is anticipated to exceed $2.5B. DPAI and the ICAM Program Offices have developed five-year roadmaps (i.e., spend plans) to address critical shortfalls in the following critical sub-sectors of the Defense Industrial Base (DIB): hypersonics; microelectronics; critical chemicals; small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS); batteries & energy storage; space industrial base; castings & forgings; submarine industrial base; Rare Earth Elements (REE); and critical materials. A roadmap for “other projects” was also developed for investments that would address urgent DIB requirements but would fall outside of those critical sub-sectors. The roadmaps provide a visual depiction of the current and planned MCEIP investments through FY 2027. MCEIP, however, does not currently have sufficient acquisition pathways standing ready to execute the anticipated funding and is seeking an expansion of acquisition capability.
Ultimately, the proposed solution will establish a consortium that will achieve the following.
Keep Pace with Technology - Participation and leverage of innovative and State of the Art (SOTA) technologies available from nontraditional defense contractors (NTDC) and/or nonprofit research institutions (NPRI) participating to a significant extent in research and rapid prototyping.
Speed of Acquisition – Decreased acquisition time to award projects as business-to-business transactions from the CM to NTDCs and/or NPRIs.
Diversification of Sources - Increased competition and entrance of NTDCs and/or NPRIs, not typically considered in FAR based contracts, expansion of the DIB.
Improved Engagement - Improved engagement with NTDCs and/or NPRIs, and increased innovation and the adoption of new technology.
Innovative Approaches – Allows for tailoring to occur on a per project basis and reduces taxpayer costs with innovative approaches.
MCEIP is focused on addressing defense supply chain issues, developing the industrial workforce, sustaining critical production, commercializing R&D efforts, and rapidly scaling emerging technologies to build a robust, resilient DIB. To enable this dynamic mission, the CM shall establish a proven and agile approach to managing a consortium that allows the award of projects to move at the pace of innovation. Key components of the model include:
project pathways that allow each individual project to be tailored to enhance to lower risk to all stakeholders,
diversification of sources that expand the DIB,
procurement actions that keep pace with emerging commercial technology,
engagement with NTDCs and/or NPRI, and
enablement of innovative approaches that reduce taxpayer cost.
In order to strengthen the national industrial base during times of disruption, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. signed Executive Order (E.O.) 14017, America’s Supply Chains, on February 24, 2021. The E.O. calls for a comprehensive review of supply chains in critical sectors, including the DIB. The DoD one-year report, submitted in response to the E.O., Securing Defense-Critical Supply Chains, outlined the DoD’s commitment “to strengthen the industrial base and establish a network of domestic and allied supply chains to meet national security needs.” Given the breadth and scale of defense supply chains, the report focused on the following four sectors in which critical vulnerabilities pose the most pressing threat to national security: (1) kinetic capabilities (i.e., hypersonics); (2) energy storage and batteries; (3) castings and forgings; and (4) microelectronics. The CM shall provide a consortium that has the appropriate expertise to address those four critical sub-sectors, and the following DIB sectors , which are also considered to be critical within MCEIP: (5) critical chemicals and minerals; (6) sUAS; (7) REEs; (8) critical materials; (9) submarine industrial base; (10) space industrial base; and (11) biomanufacturing. The specific sectors deemed critical within the DIB today may change and expand over the life of the Industrial Base Policy Consortium.
The CM shall also be able to support other programs within IBP as requested by the Government. The mission of IBP is to ensure robust, secure, resilient, and innovative industrial capabilities upon which the DoD can rely in an era of great power competition to fulfill current and future Warfighter capabilities. IBP is the principal advisor to the OUSD(A&S) for: developing DoD policies for the maintenance of the U.S. DIB; executing small business programs and policy; conducting geo-economic analysis and assessments; providing recommendations on budget matters related to the DIB; anticipating and closing gaps in manufacturing capabilities for defense systems; assessing impacts related to mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures; monitoring and assessing impact of foreign investments in the U.S.; and executing authorities under Sections 4811 and 4816 U.S.C. Title 10.
