The “Valley of Death” graphed by the Government Accountability Office   (Source: GAO-21-202)

National Defense Magazine contextualizes the “Valley of Death” in the following manner:  “The defense technology community spends a lot of time grumbling about the “Valley of Death,” a term referring to the place where innovative technologies funded by the Defense Department fail to make it into warfighters’ hands because they can’t make the transition from prototype to a real product.” (1) 

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According to the DoD, the recently announced pilot program to Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) is “an additional tool the DoD can use to propel innovative capabilities across the “Valley of Death” and into the hands of the warfighter.”

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) announced the first set of projects to receive funding:  ‘APFIT holds great promise to transform the way the Department procures next generations solutions. This pilot program is well positioned to be a key asset as we continue to work to bridge the valley of death,’ stated Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. ‘The ten companies being funded will fill critical capability gaps. Without APFIT, their innovative technologies could take much longer to reach the hands of our warfighters.'” (2) 

In the first round of funding, 10 DoD program offices will receive $10 million in APFIT funding to procure technologies from vendors for the following projects:

• Augmented reality tactical assault kit for US Special Operations Command to “enable more effective, networked, distributed, immersive mission planning and rehearsing operations in a realistic environment” from the firm Eolian.
• Semi-autonomous unmanned aerial system with modular payload capability that can provide resilient data transport and provide targeting information for the Air Force from Shield AI. The announcement specifically lists the company’s V-Bat drone.
• Anti-Jam radio links for resilient communications that provide “high data rate capacity” scalable to support multi-mission needs for the Marine Corps from Pacific Antenna Systems, Titan Systems LLC and Naval Systems, Inc.
• Procurement of a data “architecture” for automated transfer and integration of US and allied sensor data that enables access to 90 operational sources for the Space Force.
• Real-time “sensor data transformation” for the Space Force from Meroxa.
• Lightweight wide field of view night vision aviation goggles with increased resolution and reduced weight for USSOCOM from Aviation Specialties Unlimited.
• Low-cost, weaponized UAS featuring drop-glide munitions for the Army from Orbital Research.
• Advanced sensor package procurement for the Navy from Areté Associates.
• Atmospheric plasma coating removal system for the Marine Corps from Atmospheric Plasma Solutions.
• Lightfield directing array secure production for the Missile Defense Agency from Bright Silicon Technologies.
• Rapid Analysis of threat exposure for the Defense Innovation Unit from Philips Healthcare. Under this project, DIU will procure 3,800 smartwatches “loaded with algorithms that afford 2+ days of earlier detection of infectious disease, enabling early treatment and quarantine of infected individuals.”  (2) (3) 

What Next?

Opportunities for your organization may exist through this pilot program:

• “The purpose of the APFIT pilot program is to expeditiously transition technologies – with priority given to those developed by small businesses and/or nontraditional defense contractors – from pilot programs, prototype projects, and research projects into production.
• The benefits of this pilot will be to deliver war-winning capability earlier than scheduled while contributing to the viability of small business and nontraditional defense contractor vendors.’

Also, DoD is not the only government agency that struggles with the “Valley of Death”.  Does your organization has more of strong working relationship or strategic partnership with other agencies. Who are the stakeholders you can reach out to position a program similar to the APFIT at DoD? Or, is there a DoD decision-maker who is tasked with scaling the APFIT in a whole of government or interagency fashion.

Stay Informed

It should go without saying that tracking threats are critical to inform your actions. This includes reading our OODA Daily Pulse, which will give you insights into the nature of the threat and risks to business operations.

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