Technical objectives of this effort including the technology areas in which the project was conducted

The technical objectives of this effort are to develop, test, and demonstrate a highly flexible FADEC architecture using a modular approach with applicability to multiple engine types.

Use of this agreement under the authority allowed the Government to involve the research of General Electric, GE Aircraft Engines and Lockheed Martin Control Systems. Without the protection provided by Other Transactions, which allowed modified "March in Rights", the agreement would not have been reached during negotiations. The consortium members were particularly concerned that if the Government issued an exclusive license to an applicant, they (Consortium) would then be excluded from future practice of the subject invention. A FAR contract or Cooperative Agreement would not have allowed the flexibility to negotiate a patent rights agreement to allow this agreement.

The use of these other transaction agreement has expanded upon an existing relationship between the members of the consortium. General Electric and Lockheed Martin had combined their talents of expertise to achieve the goals of this requirement. The flexibility of an Other Transaction for Research allowed the Air Force to negotiate a Patent Right provision that allowed the teaming to occur.

The use of other transaction has resulted in additional benefits, not addressed above. Both General Electric and Lockheed Martin have traditionally received contractual awards from the Government. The use of the agreement under 10 U.S.C. 2371 allows the Government and the contractors to share in the cost of the effort. It also allows contractors to explore efforts they normally would not be interested in under the restriction of regular contract, with the major restriction being traditional DoD patent rights.

The technical objectives of this effort are to develop and demonstrate a polymer light emitting diode color display on a flexible substrate. The technology area is emissive color displays.

The performing organization on this project is the Polymer Light Emitting Diode (PLED) Consortium. The consortium includes 3M which would not have accepted a Department of Defense procurement contract absent the flexibility for accounting systems provided by the other transaction. The consortium also includes Rockwell Science Center, a commercial division of Rockwell International, which performed on DoD procurement contracts in the past, but wished to employ its current commercial practices. The use of an other transaction resulted in both of these commercial business units participating in the consortium. They would not have participated under a procurement contract.

The consortium brings together members of industry, both large and small businesses, as well as commercial and military businesses, and one university in a program to develop color PLED displays. The commercial applications to be developed will benefit the PLED Consortium members and ultimately benefit the United States, as a greater number of commercial suppliers gain access to a new type of flat panel dislay with better performance and improved ruggedness for both military and commercial applications. Certain rights pertaining to obligation and payment (accounting systems), disputes (alternate disputes resolution), intellectual property rights (Bayh-Dole), and foreign access to technology were important to the consortium. These required additional negotiation and flexibility in the provisions ultimately agreed upon between the parties. This flexibility and tailoring was possible only with the use of an other transaction.

The use of an other transaction for research agreement under the authority of 10 U.S.C. § 2371 allowed commercial consortium members to use existing commercial accounting practices, alleviating the requirement and avoiding the cost of setting up Government accounting systems. The consortium also will provide significant cost share in this program to develop color displays on flexible substrates for military use. The Government obtains the benefit of these practices by leveraging commercial investment to support military systems.

The technical objectives are to develop technologies to defeat airborne, surface, and underground targets and to develop supporting technologies in radio frequency systems, guidance, navigation and sensors. The technology areas are sensors, targeting, and communications.

The use of an other transaction has broadened the technology base available to DoD by providing rapid access to the widest possible range of large and small businesses, universities, nonprofits, and federal laboratories working in this field. Under the STC Tech effort, qualified performers have been identified and awarded unfunded agreements, insuring rapid competitive response to research needs. The other transaction also has fostered new teaming arrangements among potential performers.

The use of an other transaction has fostered an innovative relationship between the Government and subcontractors. The agreements provide for a new practice called “directed tasks” which is not possible under traditional contracts. The directed task language allows the Government to request proposals from, and negotiate directly with, the subcontractors. This practice will prove useful in situations where a subcontractor has proprietary technical solution included in its proposal that it does not wish to pass through the prime. By using a directed task, the Government can take advantage of that proprietary solution without interference or pass-through costs being involved by the prime contractor. This practice will especially benefit small firms with innovative, but proprietary, ideas.

The technical objectives are to develop technologies to defeat airborne, surface, and underground targets and to develop supporting technologies in radio frequency systems, guidance, navigation and sensors. The technology areas are sensors, targeting, and communications.

The use of an other transaction has broadened the technology base available to DoD by providing rapid access to the widest possible range of large and small businesses, universities, nonprofits, and federal laboratories working in this field. Under the STC Tech effort, qualified performers have been identified and awarded unfunded agreements, insuring rapid competitive response to research needs. The other transaction also has fostered new teaming arrangements among potential performers. In this case, SRI and Sarnoff have formed a true consortium under Articles of Collaboration.

The use of an other transaction has fostered an innovative relationship between the Government and subcontractors. The agreements provide for a new practice called “directed tasks” which is not possible under traditional contracts. The directed task language allows the Government to request proposals from, and negotiate directly with, the subcontractors. This practice will prove useful in situations where a subcontractor has proprietary technical solution included in its proposal that it does not wish to pass through the prime. By using a directed task, the Government can take advantage of that proprietary solution without interference or pass-through costs being involved by the prime contractor. This practice will especially benefit small firms with innovative, but proprietary, ideas.

The technical objectives are to develop technologies to defeat airborne, surface, and underground targets and to develop supporting technologies in radio frequency systems, guidance, navigation and sensors. The technology areas are sensors, targeting, and communications.

The use of an other transaction has broadened the technology base available to DoD by providing rapid access to the widest possible range of large and small businesses, universities, nonprofits, and federal laboratories working in this field. Under the STC Tech effort, qualified performers have been identified and awarded unfunded agreements, insuring rapid competitive response to research needs. The other transaction also has fostered new teaming arrangements among potential performers.

The use of an other transaction has fostered an innovative relationship between the Government and subcontractors. The agreements provide for a new practice called “directed tasks” which is not possible under traditional contracts. The directed task language allows the Government to request proposals from, and negotiate directly with, the subcontractors. This practice will prove useful in situations where a subcontractor has proprietary technical solution included in its proposal that it does not wish to pass through the prime. By using a directed task, the Government can take advantage of that proprietary solution without interference or pass-through costs being involved by the prime contractor. This practice will especially benefit small firms with innovative, but proprietary, ideas.

The Department of Defense has a requirement for a family of radios that will use existing and advanced data waveform capabilities, to ensure the timely dissemination of battlespace C4I and global navigation information. The resulting JTRS must operate with legacy equipment and waveforms currently used by military and civilian land, air, surface ship, subsurface, man-mobile, and vehicular platforms, and must be able to incorporate new waveforms as they are developed. The family of radios will be scaleable by virtue of form, fit and cost to meet specific user operational needs.

The key to success of this effort was bringing a major Defense system integrator on board to validate the Software Communications Architecture from the system integration perspective. This supplier’s participation in architecture validation activities has contributed successfully to continued open dialogue within Government and industry to evolve the baseline architecture.

This agreement, along with six other architecture validation agreements, has focused the radio industry and the vendor support structure on validating an open-standard, industry accepted architecture for software communication devices. Competitors are sitting down at the table to further mature a standard that will open the doors to leveraging the advances in commercial technology and applying them to military systems. This process will allow hardware and software to advance independently, in a manner similar to what has happened in the personal computer arena. An agreed to standard in that arena has fostered a continued accelerated growth in capability delivering products at a decreasing capability/per dollar value. The effort fostered by the JTRS architecture validation agreements are the springboard for similar growth in the radio communications, wireless networking areas which are key facets in the military’s achieving seamless distribution of voice, data, and video around the battlefield in real time. This activity will lead to enhanced interoperability in joint and coalition operations by providing a solid foundation for communications devices designed around a standard that ensures interoperability.

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  A large inventory of dissimilar communications systems having varying degrees of interoperability.
  
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  Beyond line-of-sight communications systems having inadequate capacity to handle required voice, data, imagery, and video bandwidths.
  
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  Limited support for communications on the move on the battlefield.
  
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  An inability to react and dynamically adapt to an ever-changing battlefield.
  
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  A limited ability to support multiple levels of security in communications across the battlefield.
  

All of the above deficiencies affect the national security of the United States. These are difficult obstacles to overcome. The strong Science and Technology (S&T) expertise required to satisfy the DoD goals is primarily found in the commercial marketplace. In the past, DoD access to these S&T resources has been limited because of Government business practices. However, the “Other Transactions” approach has enabled the Government to gain access to this expertise, and therefore increase technological sophistication of future systems.

The Department of Defense has a requirement for a family of radios that will use existing and advanced data waveform capabilities, to ensure the timely dissemination of battlespace C4I and global navigation information. The resulting JTRS must operate with legacy equipment and waveforms currently used by military and civilian land, air, surface ship, subsurface, man-mobile, and vehicular platforms, and must be able to incorporate new waveforms as they are developed. The family of radios will be scaleable by virtue of form, fit and cost to meet specific user operational needs.

The key to success of this effort was bringing a major Defense system integrator on board to validate the Software Communications Architecture from the system integration perspective. This supplier’s participation in architecture validation activities has contributed successfully to continued open dialogue within Government and industry to evolve the baseline architecture.