A Summerville company will manage a new Navy consortium meant to speed the purchase of information warfare technology, under a $100 million agreement.
SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic, the Navy’s engineering and acquisition command in North Charleston, awarded Advanced Technology International an other transaction authority agreement to manage the consortium for its Information Warfare Research Project, the Defense Department announced Wednesday.
The agreement runs through June 2021, according to the Pentagon’s announcement as published by AFCEA’s Signal magazine. Work will take place in Summerville and at other locations, depending on which prototype projects are awarded.
No money was obligated at the time of the award, and the agreement will be funded incrementally, the announcement said. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation funds will pay for the prototype projects. SPAWAR received six offers in a competitive procurement based on a program announcement.
Defense Daily described the award as a three-year, $100 million contract to manage SPAWAR’s new consortium “to rapidly procure information warfare tools.” The research project is set to open immediately and begin accepting proposals for capability prototype projects in August, the publication reported.
A different way to buy
The Navy describes other transaction authority as an alternative to the traditional acquisition process. Under the award, ATI will manage the industry partners in SPAWAR’s research project, Defense Daily reported.
SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic and its West Coast counterpart, SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific, laid out the approach at a Charleston industry day on Feb. 1, where leaders shared information about new contracting opportunities using other transaction authority, according to the Navy.
At that event, Deputy Executive Director William Deligne stressed the value of the research project as an enabler of rapid research and prototyping and of increased access to innovative commercial solutions, the Navy said in a photo caption from the event.
The idea had been in the works for months. Last December, the command said it was investigating an Information Warfare Research Program modeled after the National Shipbuilding Research Program. “IWRP will allow the center to partner with industry in research endeavors that can help respond to emerging requirements in a rapid way and with nontraditional ideas,” SPAWAR public affairs wrote then.
A big buyer in the Lowcountry
The consortium adds a new door for companies that want to sell to one of the region’s largest technology customers.
SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic had a civilian and military workforce of more than 4,100 and more than 9,000 industry partners, the command said in December. Out of a $3.25 billion contracting effort in fiscal 2016, 35% was obligated to small businesses, or 468 firms, it said. Its target was 32% of eligible prime contract dollars.
“Given the amount of work we do, with approximately 850 projects in parallel today, it is essential that we are able to augment our workforce and procure commercially available solutions via contractual relationships with our industry partners,” Capt. Scott Heller, the commanding officer, said at the time.
The command also said it is primarily a Navy Working Capital Fund organization, which means it relies on Defense Department customers paying for its engineering services rather than direct congressional appropriations.
In Charleston, the command’s outreach to contractors runs largely through the Charleston Defense Contractors Association, the command said. Its contracting office briefs companies each quarter at Small Business and Industry Outreach Initiative sessions on contract strategy and forecasts of future orders and contracts.
What the Navy wants to buy
The command has named cloud computing, data science analytics, assured communications and cyber warfare among its technical growth areas, and it has begun holding quarterly technology exchanges with industry, each focused on one of those areas.
“I believe SSC Atlantic is in the right place at the right time to deliver solutions that operationalize cyberspace,” Heller said in December. “Our industry partners will continue to give us a strategic advantage as we develop and field Information Warfare solutions.”
SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic is led by Heller, who took command in July 2015, and Executive Director Chris Miller, according to the command. Its parent, the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, is based in San Diego.
