Closing the Innovation Gap at SOCOM

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Authors
Ingram, Greg
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2019-04-30
Date
Publisher
Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
Doing business with the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) can be difficult. There are a number of physical and regulatory hoops to jump through: getting on MacDill Air Force Base, getting into the SOCOM compound, and the prohibition of electronic devices on the compound, just to name a few. Not to mention the intricacies of the federal acquisition process, which could take more than a year from Broad Area Announcement (BAA) to contract award. To address these hurdles in a rapidly changing technological environment, SOCOM, in conjunction with the Doolittle Institute (now DEFENSEWERX), created SOFWERX: An unclassified facility where Special Operations operators can bring their requirements and be tested out and rapidly prototyped (https://www.sofwerx.org/). Once down selected, they can then move into a SOCOM Program of Record and be fast-tracked into the acquisition process. This compression of the Concept Development to Prototype phases vastly increases the time to product deployment.
Type
Report
Description
Department
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
SYM-AM-19-081
Sponsors
Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Program
Funder
Format
Citation
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.
Collections