An RTX business has won an $8 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop a supply chain risk management tool for the Department of Defense.
Raytheon BBN Technologies will create the modeling and simulation tool, which will leverage historical and behavioral survey data to forecast risks and determine mitigation strategies for supply chain disruptions, RTX announced from Cambridge, Massachusetts on Monday.
John Santini, principal investigator for the initiative at Raytheon BBN, noted DARPA’s emphasis on risks within the DOD supply chain.
“Vulnerabilities stem from the fact that they are open, complex, evolving systems whose dynamics are at the mercy of both external and internal factors—often driven by locally focused decisions,” he elaborated.
The simulator will utilize data on supplies of pharmaceuticals, military metals and military food; incorporate modern economic macro-models of supply demand networks with earlier Raytheon BBN-developed microeconomic and process models; and integrate artificial intelligence to support its functions.
During the performance period, Raytheon BBN will lead a team of several collaborators, including The Ohio State University, Clarkson University and the University of Southern California.