Air Force Fleshes Out AFVentures Initiative.

The Air Force is moving forward with an initiative to bring innovative technologies into the service, according to a top acquisition official.

"AFVentures is our process to work with companies that--at least for now--are mainly targeting commercial success," Will Roper, the Air Force's assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said during a Decode webinar. "It's not perfect, but I think we've come a long way."

Roper first announced the creation of AFVentures in February. The effort is a collaboration between the Air Force Small Businesses Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Program and AFWERX to invest in small businesses that may have technology useful to the military, according to a news release. Some of the money is coming from private investors.

The service is giving out awards through different levels of "bets," he noted, with "small bets" totaling between $50,000 to $75,000 and "medium bets" totaling between $ 1 million to $3 million, Roper said.

"The process as it exists today, does about 1,000 very small entry level awards to get companies in," he said. "The second step is where we move up to medium-sized bets."

Companies chosen for the small awards don't have to have a concrete idea of how...