As reported in Air & Space Forces Magazine: Small and medium businesses are still skeptical of defense work despite years of effort and a raft of legislation aimed at accelerating acquisition and breaking down barriers for new entrants—though that perception is slowly improving, according to a new industry survey.
"There's still a lot of work to be done" to convince new entrants that defense work is worthwhile, said Keoki Jackson, senior vice president and general manager of MITRE's national security sector, in an interview with the magazine.
MITRE also wanted to see how well the "adaptive acquisition framework" that it helped develop is faring, five years after it was implemented, Jackson said. The framework created six new "pathways" meant to streamline purchases in areas like services and software and boost the use of nontraditional acquisition authorities.
The adaptive framework is in the "toddler stage," he said. "Even though it was enacted in 2020, because of the time lag in budget cycles, 2023 was actually the first year that you could start a program" using it.
But it's grown in popularity. For instance, Jackson said, the number of software programs using the framework has jumped from about 50 to more than 80 in the past year. About 35 programs used middle-tier acquisition authorities for rapid prototyping in 2019, before the framework was enacted, he added. That's grown to more than 100 programs.
He cautioned, though, that of the roughly $430 billion spent on defense contracts in 2023, less than $16 billion of that went through other transaction authorities.
"That gives you a sense of the room we have for increase," he said.