The Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command is the latest DoD organization to look to Other Transaction Authority as a work-around to the traditional acquisition system in pursuit of new cyber capabilities.
SPAWAR plans to spend about $100 million though a forthcoming OTA structure it calls the Information Warfare Research Project (IWRP), beginning as soon as this Fall. It will pay firms for prototype work across 14 different “technology areas,” including cyber warfare, cloud computing, data analytics, assured command and control, and embedded internet-of-things systems.
It plans to hire a third party to manage a consortium of contractors who are capable of conducting prototype work in its various technology areas. Those members would then compete for individual projects by submitting proposals in response to SPAWAR’s technology needs.
The Army is in the process of establishing a similar cyber-focused OTA called C-RAPID that it hopes will be able to accomplish the acquisition process for any particular prototype project within just 30 days.
There are now at least 19 OTA consortia across the federal government, according to a tally maintained by Bloomberg Government.