The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) announced the next round of projects to receive funding via the pilot program to Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT). This is the second tranche of projects to be selected during Fiscal Year 2024, and the first tranche awarded after the Department received a full appropriation for FY 2024.
The purpose of the APFIT pilot program is to expeditiously transition technologies into production, and to accelerate the fielding of needed technologies to the warfighter, with priority given to technologies developed by small businesses and nontraditional defense contractors. The benefits of this pilot program will be to deliver war-winning capability earlier than scheduled, while contributing to the viability of small business and nontraditional defense contractor vendors. APFIT is an additional tool the DoD can use to propel innovative capabilities across the "Valley of Death" and accelerate fielding into the hands of warfighters.
"Thanks to congressional support for APFIT in this year's defense appropriation bill, R&E is accelerating the fielding of crucial capabilities to our warfighters," said Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.
The National Defense Authorization Act of FY22 established APFIT under the Secretary of Defense as a competitive, merit-based program for innovative and mature technologies and products that can meet warfighter demands but lack the necessary funding to transition the capability into the production phase.
The U.S. Congress funded $100 million for APFIT in FY 2022, $150 million in FY 2023, and $300 million in FY 2024. In the past two years, twenty-one DoD programs were selected to receive APFIT funding to procure innovative technologies from these small businesses and nontraditional defense contractors. The APFIT program expects to award up to 19 total projects in FY 2024, with four awards previously announced in February. The 13 projects awarded in this tranche are:
- Communications Mobile Gateway Buoy, $12.940M, U.S. Navy
- Family of Systems for Assured Movement and Maneuver, $15.950, U.S. Transportation Command via U.S. Army
- Gladius Micro-High-Altitude Balloon Deployed Glider, $10.000M, U.S. Army
- High Efficiency Phase Modulator, $11.000M, Missile Defense Agency
- Installation Resilience Operations Command and Control, $20.000M, U.S. Air Force
- Majestic Alpha, $18.500M, U.S. European Command and U.S. Special Operations Command
- Project 711: Containerized Secure Units, $15.200M, U.S. Marine Corps
- Classified, $13.650M, U.S. Special Operations Command
- Rack Mounted Optical Clocks, $22.000M, DARPA and multiple Services
- Radome Operational Performance Evaluation, $10.000M, U.S. Air Force
- Reducible Height Gunner Protection Kit, $19.721M, U.S. Marine Corps
- Resilient Networking for Space Domain Awareness, $15.375M, U.S. Space Force
- Ultra Long Endurance - Perpetual, $20.406M, U.S. Army
About USD(R&E)
The Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (USD(R&E) is the Chief Technology Officer of the Department of Defense. The USD(R&E) champions research, science, technology, engineering, and innovation to maintain the United States military's technological advantage. Learn more at www.cto.mil, follow us on Twitter @DoDCTO, or visit us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/ousdre.