The Middle Tier Acquisition (MTA) pathway is a streamlined and agile procurement process implemented by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to accelerate the delivery of advanced military capabilities. Established in response to the rapidly evolving technological landscape and the need for quicker adaptation, the MTA pathway serves as an alternative to traditional acquisition processes. This summary provides a brief history of the MTA pathway and its development within the DoD.

The Military Urgent Operational Needs (UON) and Joint Urgent Operational Needs (JUON) program is a procurement initiative utilized by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to quickly acquire critical technologies, capabilities, and systems to address urgent and unforeseen operational needs in the field. This essay will explore the concept, history, and use cases of the UON and JUON program.

In the long list of highly important and useful tools within the RDT&E toolbox, the one that is by far the most impactful, been around the longest, and is still heavily utilized to this day is the Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD). As it is organized through and by the command staff levels of the COCOMs and higher levels of the military, most tactical and operational levels of the military don't see or interact with these events. As such, most "innovation" personnel are very unfamiliar with the JCTD process, and often in the pursuit of technologies from the tactical edge fail to consider this option in R&D planning.

It is a very common issue in the R&D space, especially when working with small companies, that the government is pitched a "technology" or "solution". The core issue with this approach is that it is fundamentally flawed from the start. The government acquisition system does not build things it buys end products. The government has to buy products (usually a complete system) to fill a requirement, and not components for systems no matter how cool, useful, or ground breaking a technology it might be. It is the role of industry to take our need, and figure out a way to make their technology into a product, that then can by purchased by the government to address that original need.

The innovation ecosystem can seem to be a chaotic fog with many players stumbling blindly trying to find their way to seemingly lost finish line. What is most needed is teamwork to align common needs with common goals and pooled resources. But how do you bring participants together when you might not have the usual tools of a military hierarchy to fall back on to force a cohesive game plan? It all relies on one magic word...incentives!

It was a great weekend at SXSW here in Austin, and a really healthy discussion on a wide range of innovation topics at Capital Factory's events. Of the many interesting items that got discussed, to which I will have subsequent articles covering, was one I wanted to highlight of interest in a "Joint Open Topic SBIR" program across the DoD. The interesting thing about this concept is that many people forget or simply don't know that, despite only the combined Air Force and Space Force SBIR program offering an Open Topic solicitation currently (Navy starting in summer 23), there has always been the availability to utilize any SBIR/STTR selection or award by any federal organization. Let's take a look at the direct language from the AF/SF SBIR program covering everyone's favorite example of what does this mean..."Selectable - Not Funded".

In the final installment in of my three part article series providing a more in depth look at the Innovation acquisition system, let us now turn to the most mysterious and hard to answer question for outsiders of “who do I talk to?” To answer this question it is first key to understand the organizations involved and their primary function either in or related to acquisition. The title graphic above shows the layout of major organizations that have required roles in this overall process. The ever elusive needs, requirements, and funding decisions are all made at the Combatant Command (COCOM) and Major Command (MAJCOM) level. The outcomes of those decisions are then acted upon for R&D or Acquisition by internal or external organizations depending on the size of the effort, with large efforts going external and small ones staying internal to the commands. Every command staff serving both COCOMs and MAJCOMs have statutory functions they must provide, and therefore have similar but varying structures and even these change over time. Understanding these structures is the key to figuring out who to talk to for any major decision in the acquisition process.

I like to think of this infographic as the most valuable piece of information that I have ever received during my time working in the innovation ecosystem. Ironic that I received this during a HAF/A5R training course, rather than from any innovation training or organization. I also think that says a lot out the internal disconnects between innovation and acquisition in general. The critical point to remember is that until that hypothetical future day comes where laws are past or regulations are changed, we have the acquisition we have. The question for today should be then, how do we work within that system and integrate our new innovation initiatives. To accomplish that we have to start with the understanding of what options are available and how do they conceptually work. To that end, I present the most valuable piece of information to illustrating that answer.

"The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs are highly competitive programs that encourage domestic small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) with the potential for commercialization. Through a competitive awards-based program, SBIR and STTR enable small businesses to explore their technological potential and provide the incentive to profit from its commercialization." (www.sba.gov)

Executing a successful innovation project stems from the combination of two fundamental skills across the lifespan of the effort. First, a solid organization plan implements everything from the pitch, through the work plan, and ending in the test results or project report. It is doing all the actions required to not just heard the cats, but properly express those plans in written form for others to see and understand. Second, the ability to tell the story of the project to each applicable audience in the right way at the right time is the lynch pin to gaining and carrying forward support to the project over time. These two skills are what holistically grows, supports, and maintains a project over its full lifespan.

Many times in the process of military innovation, we find ourselves in organizations with only one significant resource. Often thoughts immediately run to how do we build up the trifecta of resources to then start doing things ourselves, versus trying to partner with others to start things today. There’s always an opportunity for creative partnerships between organizations that only requires creative planning and open minded participants. Let’s look at some examples of each situation.

The total numbers aside, it is the percentages of each funding type (color) and the relative ratio of each funding type to each other that forces certain limitations to innovation planning. First of the five funding types, only three are of any possible use to innovation acquisition, and they are each of drastically reduced availability for innovation use. In order, RDT&E then O&M then Procurement are probably, possible, then plausible for innovation acquisition. It is important to also remember that each of those funding type all have an ever increasing amount of the funding already spoken for by existing needs and requirements. Innovation is always a sliver of the any funding type available.

The traditional acquisition landscape and process can be long and complicated. Much like foreign explorers staring up at the hieroglyphics covered walls in ancient Egyptian temples, the ability for non-native people to understand the nonsensical language and complex orchestration of the acquisition system can be daunting without months of training and years of experience. To help crack the code, and expedite the learning curve, I recommend starting with the three items that can form the Rosetta Stone for Acquisition.