FORGING THE ARMY’S CYBER DEFENSE


Box,” a mechanism introduced in 2014 to allow greater flexibility for certain tech- nological capabilities. (See related article,


“Smaller, Faster Bites Streamline Acquisi- tion,” Page 33.) “Most folks in traditional acquisition are told, ‘Go buy or get me this,’ ” Helmore said. “We’re not told that. We’re told, ‘Go get me something that you think can solve these types of problems.’ We have a ton of flexibility.”


GRAND OPENING


Lt. Gen. Stephen G. Fogarty, commanding general of U.S. Army Cyber Command, and Chérie Smith, PEO EIS, mark the official opening of the Forge May 16 at Fort Belvoir. (Photo by Cecilia Tueros)


problems, and then start to integrate and develop products into actual solutions that we can take off the shelf and insert into the warfighter’s hands,” he said.


“It’s great to see the Forge connecting those dots and linking everyone together, bring- ing speed to the acquisition process like we’ve wanted to for a long time,” added Brendan Burke, deputy program exec- utive officer for EIS. No more games of telephone.


IT’S ALL ABOUT SPEED The Forge worked with ACC-RI to establish its very own other-transaction authority agreement, which they named COBRA. It has its own unique parameters, specific to the Forge, and functions as a sort


50 Army AL&T Magazine Fall 2019


of blanket purchasing authority. Agree- ments under other-transaction authority allow DOD to bypass many procurement regulations for certain prototype proj- ects. Bonnie Evangelista, a procurement analyst with ACC-RI, works at the Forge full time, and explained the advantages of other-transaction agreements for defensive cyber. With other-transaction authority,


“you have a lot of flexibility and oppor- tunity to enable the things the Forge is designed to do,” she said. “Not just proto- typing, but innovation, collaboration, the speed of operational relevance.”


Helmore explained that flexibility as a mandate from Army leaders. Te only limitation, he said, is the requirement to stay within the boundaries of the “IT


Beyond the obvious benefits of speed and flexibility for cyber defense, Evangelista said other-transaction authority is great for cyber and for nontraditional govern- ment contractors because the barriers to entry are lower. “You can bring in compa- nies that normally don’t do business with the government,” she said (though other- transaction agreements can also be used to contract with traditional defense contrac- tors, as long as they agree to cost-sharing). Because the Forge’s other-transaction agreement uses layman’s terms and allows simplified submissions (white papers, tech- nical charts or fact sheets, rather than formal proposals). “You don’t have to be a great proposal writer. You just submit your idea or your commercial solution or technology.”


“Everybody talks about bringing inno- vation,” said Col. Chad Harris, project manager for Defensive Cyber Operations, which houses Applied Cyber Technolo- gies and the Forge, “but then it has to be transitioned to programs of record, and then it has to be sustained long term. Te Forge sits at a unique point, bringing innovators together with our programs of record.” The Forge is using other- transaction authority to spark those new relationships and solutions, and is setting the stage for those innovations to eventu- ally comply with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).


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