It is not all bad news in the defense acquisition world.

• Author: Geiss, Don
• Position: VIEWPOINT

There are many reasons why defense acquisition has received a bad rap and why lawmakers and Pentagon leaders have been trying to reform the acquisition process for more than 30 years.

The problems are well known. It takes too long to develop and field new technology within the constraints of federal acquisition regulations.

There are cases, however, when defense acquisitions can work effectively.

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Examples of successful defense acquisitions can be found in the Defense Department's Ordnance Technology Consortium, known as DOTC. It was chartered in 2002 by the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics as a procurement reform initiative that is designed to preserve and advance the U.S. ordnance technology base.

DOTC facilitates collaboration, technology development and prototyping among U.S. industry, academia and the Defense Department's ordnance community. This arrangement is legally supported by Section 845 prototype "other transaction agreement." OTA is administered by the Army at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J., through a government-staffed DOTC program office.

Representatives from industry and academia participate through the National Warheads and Energetics Consortium, which currently has more than 220 members who individually, or in teaming arrangements, collaborate with government and then compete for technology development and prototyping awards through the OTA.

The OTA requires that all awards include a one-third cost share by industry or a significant contribution by a non-traditional defense contractor. This requirement motivates traditional defense contractors to seek innovative ideas from non-traditional firms, which are defined as those having less than $500,000 in federal acquisition contracts in the past 12 months. Non-traditional contractors are most often small businesses. Their involvement provides a new pool of innovation.

Approximately 22 percent of NWEC members are non-traditional defense contractors. The OTA is available for use by all service laboratories, agencies and Defense Department program offices. Current customers are primarily service ordnance laboratories, program executive offices, U.S. Special Operations Command, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

DOTC categorizes the ordnance technologies into nine focus areas: warheads, explosives, propellants, pyrotechnics...