William LaPlante, under secretary for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense and a 2024 Wash100 awardee, said advancing the use of the Competitive Advantage Pathfinders, or CAP, process could enable DOD to accelerate the transition of defense capabilities to program-of-record status and into the production phase.

In a commentary published Wednesday in National Defense Magazine, LaPlante wrote that his office runs the CAP process under the newly established Acquisition Integration and Interoperability Office.

“The goal is to flip the equation on process improvement: identify technology potentially useful to multiple military services stuck somewhere in or among the stool/triangle’s three legs,” he noted.

According to the defense acquisition executive, CAPs could help speed up capability development and bridge the “valley of death” by “getting representatives — and buy-in — from the resources, requirements and acquisition communities (the legs of the stool/triangle) together to address whatever might be the cause of the delay, be it funding, contract rules or inter-service concurrence.”

“Having resolved one issue, they move onto the next challenge,” LaPlante added.

In this article, the defense under secretary discussed how the CAP process could enable a service branch to adapt and transition a capability to another military branch without requiring a new budget cycle or program.

“Through CAPs, we can vastly accelerate these processes, turning what was a lethal valley into a flatter — though still bumpy — plain, and thus help secure military advantage for the next generation,” LaPlante stated.

The No Mariners Required Ship, or NOMARS, program is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s ambitious project to develop and create a medium unmanned surface vessel that’s able to perform missions, conduct self-maintenance and carry a large payload all without a single human onboard.

Serco is currently working on the Defiant testbed under contract to DARPA with the goal of making this dream happen. The War Zone reports that the ship will be in the water for testing by January 2025.

Obviously, such a forward-thinking technology requires a number of unorthodox and boundary-shattering technical advancements — new configurations of power generation, propulsion, control schemes and machinery line-up. But according to DARPA’s Dr. Greg Avicola, program manager in the Tactical Technology Office, the program’s tech requirements necessitate a rethinking of the way the DOD acquires its tools.

“DARPA’s goal on the NOMARS program is not only to push the technology inside the Uncrewed Surface Vessel forward for future Navy applications, but also to rethink acquisition, logistics and maintenance infrastructure that keeps a USV fleet operational, paving a vision for a larger number of unmanned ships than currently imagined,” Avicola told ExecutiveGov.

Avicola spoke to us in advance of his appearance at the Potomac Officers Club’s 2024 Navy Summit, where he’ll speak on a panel about the ways the Navy is incorporating autonomous systems into its fleets. You can bet he’ll be talking about NOMARS specifically and the opportunities it’s opening up for industry down the line — don’t miss out on this prime GovCon networking opportunity; register now!

The National Security Innovation Network has named 10 ventures to the 2024 Propel Hawaii accelerator.

The NSIN said Tuesday the selected early-stage companies will provide new capabilities for the U.S. Air Force and its Indo-Pacific partners through their novel technologies. These new innovations are intended to bolster the readiness, innovation and agility of the forces.

The cohort of 10 ventures are as follows:

• Black Cape – high-performance computer infrastructure for data management, mission planning, and secure information sharing
• Bucephalus – predictive artificial intelligence planning platform that unites different data sources and optimizes supply chains in real-time
• Confidencial.io – data-blind platform automatically protects PACAF’s sensitive, unstructured content within documents and associated workflows
• Disruptive Electronic Warfare Machines – provides concealment using man-portable radar target system that emulates modern surface threat radio frequency signatures
• Lovelace AI – enables proactive decision-making and enhanced operational effectiveness with tailored models to automate near-real-time data analysis
• Pvilion – solar powered integrated structures that enable intelligent data monitoring and reduce fuel consumption
• Tagup – machine learning logistics platforms optimize PACAF’s supply and distribution of materiel
• Tern AI – independently-derived positioning system that enables mission-critical operations in contested environments
• Zephr.xyz – enhances reliability and accuracy of PACAF’s global navigation satellite system with self-correcting network receivers
• ZeroMark – AI-driven technology for counter unmanned aerial systems

All cohorts will ideally bring different offerings that cover areas crucial for the next-generation warfighter, particularly in collaborative planning and execution, agile combat employment—or ACE—and camouflage, concealment and deception, or CC&D.

The chosen ventures will collaborate with the Pacific Air Force Science and Technology and the 613th Air Operations Center, Hawaii Technology Development Corporation and the University of Hawaii Office of Innovation and Commercialization to design national security applications from their innovations.

A total of 62 alumni companies of the NSIN Propel have secured $418 million worth of private capital and $130 million in government funding. The 10 ventures from this year will join this exclusive group upon completion of the program.

“The challenges facing the Indo-Pacific are complex and pressing, but the technologies these companies are working on have potential to provide real deterrent value and improve operational efficiency,” said NSIN Venture Portfolio Director Abigail Desjardins.

Don’t miss out on the Potomac Officers Club’s GovCon International Summit. Register here.