GLOBAL SOLUTIONS


FCT Proposals for FY14 are currently being accepted from Army technology officers on the OSD CTO Portal website at https://cto.acqcenter.com/osd/portal. nsf/Start?ReadForm.


Initial draft proposals are due to the RDECOM International Technology Integration Team by March 1. Final ver- sions will be due by May 1, after a period of refining the proposals with RDE- COM. OSD selections are expected by July. Finally, the resulting projects will get underway in October 2013, the start of FY14, pending the availability of funding.


ENHANCEMENTS IN BODY ARMOR


Enhanced body armor is among the 105 items tested and deployed by U.S. forces that originated in the FCT Program. Currently, program officals are evaluating small arms protective inserts fabricated using a new isostatic, high-pressure processing technique from an Australian vendor. This novel process has shown promising ballistic performance results and has the potential to reduce the weight of personal body armor while lowering cost. Here, CPL Bobby Liverman of 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment clears an area in the district of Spin Boldak, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, Sept. 9 during Operation Southern Strike III. (U.S. Army photo by 1LT Veronica Aguila, 117th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)


For information on submitting an Army FCT proposal for FY14, contact one of the following members of the RDECOM International Technology Integration Team: Jason Craley at jason.craley@us.army. mil or 410-278-8591; William “Randy” Everett at william.r.everett@us.army. mil or 410-306-4824; or Rino Impe- riale at rino.imperiale.civ@mail.mil or 410-306-4828.


 The Mine Resistant Combat Boot FCT project, which will test and evaluate a Colombian anti-personnel mine-resis- tant combat boot against other blast boots that the Army is currently using. Results will help determine whether the Colombian boot is more effective and should be procured by the Army.


CONCLUSION All proposals are submitted for competi- tion for FCT funding by government program managers and are associated with a Program of Record. Tis is done to ensure that all FCT projects address valid


88 Army AL&T Magazine


needs, and makes it highly likely—over 80 percent in the past 30 years—that a vendor product that tests successfully will be procured by DOD.


Tere are many ways foreign vendors can enter the FCT process. One is to solicit help from their respective embassy repre- sentatives in the United States. Another is to hire professional consultants to broker their business with DOD. Addi- tionally, vendors can contact the Army Comparative Technology Office (CTO) directly with information on a product or products.


January–March 2013


MR. JASON CRALEY is a general engineer at the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM). As a member of the RDECOM Interna- tional Technology Integration Team, he is


responsible for identifying candidate


technologies for the Foreign Comparative (FCT) Testing and Defense Acquisition Challenge


(DAC) programs, as well as


evaluating FCT and DAC technical pro- posals and managing subsequent programs. He holds B.S. degrees in aerospace engi- neering and international studies


from


Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and an M.S.


in engineering management from


the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Craley is a member of the American Insti- tute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and is a published author.


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