Technology transition does not come naturally and can be very difficult. It requires positive actions by people interacting throughout the system in order to be successful. It requires a marketplace (commercial or military) for the technology and appropriate applications for those markets. The following programs were specifically designed to assist the community in developing new technologies to be successfully transitioned. In most cases, these programs are another source of funds outside a specific program to support transition efforts.
Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration Program
In early 1994, the DoD initiated a program designed to help expedite the transition of maturing technologies from the developers to the users. The ACTD program was developed to help adapt the DoD acquisition process to today’s economic and threat environments. ACTDs emphasize technology assessment and integration rather than technology development. The goal is to provide a prototype capability to the warfighter and to support the warfighter in the evaluation of that capability. The warfighters evaluate the capabilities in real military exercises and at a scale sufficient to fully assess military utility.
ACTDs are designed to allow users to gain an understanding of proposed new capabilities for which there is no user experience base. Specifically, they provide the warfighter opportunities to:
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Develop and refine the warfighter’s concept of operations to fully exploit the capability under evaluation,
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Evolve the warfighter’s operational requirements as the warfighter gains experience and understanding of the capability, and
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Operate militarily useful quantities of prototype systems in realistic military demonstrations and, on that basis, make an assessment of the military utility of the proposed capability.
There are three potential outcomes of ACTD operational demonstrations. The user sponsor may recommend acquisition of the technology and fielding of the residual capability that remains at the completion of the demonstration phase of the ACTD, to provide an interim and limited operational capability. If the capability or system does not demonstrate military utility, the project is terminated or returned to the technology base. A third possibility is that the user’s need is fully satisfied by fielding the residual capability that remains at the conclusion of the ACTD, and there is no need to acquire additional units.
Participation in the Program
The Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Advanced Systems and Concepts [DUSD(AS&C)] is responsible for selecting and approving ACTDs. Ideally, a user/developer team, having combined a critical operational need with maturing technology, will develop an ACTD candidate for consideration. The AS&C staff is available to assist in team development, concept refinement, and clarification of the ACTD’s basic criteria and attributes. When the details of the concept are defined, a briefing is presented to the DUSD(AS&C). The concept may be accepted for further discussion, deferred with guidance for refinement, or rejected. If accepted, a briefing is presented to the “Breakfast Club,” an advisory group of senior acquisition and operational executives, for their review and assessment. The candidate ACTDs are then presented to the Joint Staff, through the Joint Warfare Capabilities Assessment and the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, for their review and recommended prioritization.
According to an October 30, 2001 memorandum, “ACTD proposals should address the Department’s most pressing and urgent military issues. Additionally, they should support the Department’s transformation goals and objectives. All proposals should begin with a statement of the problem they intend to solve and the proposed capabilities addressing this problem.”39
The ACTD Web site, at http://www.acq.osd.mil/actd/, is another source of information on this topic.
The goals of the Commercial Operational and Support Savings Initiative (COSSI) were to improve readiness and reduce operations and support (O&S) costs by inserting existing commercial items or technology into military legacy systems. COSSI emphasized the rapid development and fielding of prototypes based on current commercial technology.
Many DoD systems require maintenance long beyond the useful life initially anticipated. Extending the service life of military systems increases the costs of ownership (i.e., O&S costs). For the purposes of COSSI, O&S costs are the costs of owning and operating a military system, including the costs of personnel, consumables, goods and services, and sustaining the support and investment associated with the peacetime operation of a weapons system.40 One way to reduce O&S costs is to take advantage of the commercial sector’s technological innovations by inserting commercial technology into fielded weapons systems. COSSI funding leveraged technology developments made by commercial firms, reducing R&D costs for the DoD.
COSSI involved a two-stage process. In Stage I, COSSI funds were used to perform the non-recurring engineering, testing, and qualification that typically are needed to adapt a commercial item/technology for use in a military system. Selected contractors developed, fabricated, and delivered a prototype “kit” to a military customer for installation into a fielded DoD system. Each prototype kit consisted of a commercial item, or a combination of commercial items, that had been adapted, qualification-tested, and readied for insertion. Stage I generally lasted two to three years. Stage II involved the purchase of production quantities of the prototype kits.
Since COSSI funding began in Fiscal Year 1997, 77 projects have been funded through the program. COSSI has contributed an investment of $234 million, and contractor spending has contributed another $143 million. The estimated total O&S savings from these projects is $1.32 billion.
Participation in the Program
The available funding for COSSI projects was eliminated beyond FY 2002. The services should undertake to implement the essential elements to ensure continued reduction in life-cycle costs. To encourage this action, Congress passed, in Section 822 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2002, a provision that allows sole-source follow-on procurement contracts if technology development programs negotiate contractual agreements like those performed under the COSSI program.
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