The Grand Forks Air Force Base Innovation Council collaborated with the University of North Dakota and the 319th Contracting Flight to hold a virtual pitch event for startup businesses.
Carly Larson, contracting officer at 319th CONF, said in a statement published Wednesday the event sought to accelerate procurement methods for the U.S. Air Force.
The service branch awarded a $236K contract to a selected vendor, with $35.4K paid during the event. Larson said the awardee submitted a proposal for a small drone countermeasure technology that houses automated detection, tracking and defeat features.
"The ‘advance payment’ is another aspect of this contracting method that assists start-up companies with earnest money to promote business relations with new DoD tech companies," Larson noted.
