The U.S. Air Force’s digital directorate utilized a method that allowed the service branch to speed up the award of seven contracts worth $6.75M through the second phase of the Small Business Administration’s Small Business Innovative Research vehicle.
The directorate condensed the contracting schedule in six weeks and employed external partnerships to award the Phase II contracts within a three-week period, the Air Force said Tuesday.
Capt. Teresa Doskey, a contract officer at the Force Protection Division, said her team prepared a special training program for the Phase II contracts to mitigate any errors in the process.
She noted that it normally takes six months to offer a Phase II contract from the receipt of proposals.
The awardees are Scientific Systems, Intellisense Systems, Black Swift Technologies, Asymmetric Technologies, Westlight Networks, Architecture Technology Corporation and SimpleSense. The contractors are tasked to carry out research and development efforts in approaches that may support warfighter operations.