Leveraging Streamlined Acquisition Authorities
to Deliver Innovation to the Warfighter
Recent Executive Orders and Directives require the
Department of Defense to immediately leverage commercial
acquisition authorities for all procurements. This is to drive
the Department to prioritize commercial solutions to leverage
innovation in the commercial marketplace and streamline
processes to rapidly deliver solutions to our warfighters.
Many critics have been vocal for years about the Department’s slow processes
and inability to break from acquisition processes that served a bygone era. These
Orders and Directives aim to redirect $300+ billion annual DoD spend on defense
capabilities using processes aimed at acquiring commercial solutions.
What does this mean for DoD organizations?
Buying commercial has long been a stated preference of the Federal Government.
There are a number of existing statutes that call for the DoD to leverage commercial
solutions before custom building DoD needs. Notably, 10 U.S.C. §3453 implements
the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) of 1994 and establishes a preference
for commercial products and commercial services. The Directing Modern Software
Acquisition to Maximize Lethality Secretary of Defense Memo directs the Software
Acquisition Pathway (SWP) for all software development components of business
and weapons systems as well as default use of Commercial Solution Opening (CSO)
procedures and Other Transaction (OT) awards for acquiring SWP capabilities. The
Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial
Base Executive Order directs use of commercial acquisition authorities to execute
procurements for commercial solutions, including FAR 12/DFARS 212.2, CSO,
and OT, as well as leveraging Rapid Capability Office (RCO) processes and other
streamlined authorities that could include Simplified Acquisition Procedures under
FAR 13.5, Challenge-Based Acquisition, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
Phase III awards, and Procurement for Experimental Purposes.
Quality market research, focused on identifying viable commercial solutions before
determining a custom DoD solution is necessary, is critical for changing the DoD
culture of writing overly prescriptive requirements that preclude innovative
solutioning. The DoD must embrace emerging technologies and expand the
Defense Industrial Base (DIB) to deliver cutting-edge solutions to warfighters.
Key Objectives
Warfighters need a continuous
refresh of new technology solutions
to meet the demands of today’s
evolving threat environment. DoD
acquisition programs notoriously
take years to define, acquire,
develop, and deliver custom DoD
solutions to the field.
DoD programs need to pivot away
from pre-determining solutions
through overly prescriptive
requirements and instead allow
innovative providers to offer
solutions leveraging existing
capabilities and commercial
solutions. Existing commercial
solution technology is often a viable
starting point to either acquire as-
is or prototype/experiment to meet
DoD needs.
Custom DoD solutions may still be
necessary when market research
demonstrates the commercial
marketplace doesn’t support unique
DoD needs (e.g., nuclear weapon
technologies, aircraft carriers).
DoD must address barriers to
entry for new entrants but must
also reduce internal barriers to
leveraging commercial acquisition
processes that will benefit all
solution providers as well as DoD
stakeholders and operational users.
