The U.S. Army plans to launch a process that seeks to facilitate the prototyping and acquisition of cyber defense platforms within 30 days through a consortium of vendors, Federal News Radio reported Thursday.
The Army will select in May an independent group that will work to recruit member companies into the Cyberspace Real-time Acquisition Prototyping Innovation Development consortium.
The service branch expects member firms of the proposed C-RAPID consortium to annually generate between six to 24 cyber defense system prototypes for evaluation by the Army Cyber Command and for incorporation into programs of record.
Under the new process, the Army’s program executive office for enterprise information systems will ask vendors to submit white papers on capability requirements within a week and then narrow down the number of candidates that will proceed to demonstrate their platforms at an Army cyber range.
The Army will award “other transaction†agreements to selected vendors within a month to help them transition their prototypes into the full-scale production phase, the report added.
