THE NEED FOR SPEED
A MASSIVE LITTLE EXCLUSION But what about contracting, you ask? Certainly if we speed up program time- lines, traditional contracting will keep the overall process slow, right? Enter other transaction authority, which gives the contracting officer the capacity to enter into an “other transaction agreement”— acquisition-speak for a legally binding contract directed to a specific vendor for the purchase of a prototype. Tese specific vendors are normally not tradi- tional defense contractors. Teir purpose is to show how DOD could use current technology. Such a contract must be for $100 million or less, which means that it’s designed for smaller acquisition category (II, III or IV) programs.
Other transaction agreements are nonstandard procurement contracts, and thus not subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). That little exclusion actually has a huge impact and completely reshapes the playing field for DOD contracting. Tis exclusion could decrease the amount of
time to award
a contract by 12 months. Other transaction agreements provide small,
innovative
companies an easier way of contracting with DOD.
issue a request for proposal to all industry partners, using the specifications of the prototype, for a larger contract for full Army fielding.
Tis follow-on contract award enables the Army to engage competition to obtain the best value in acquiring the new capabil- ity in greater numbers. It may not seem fair: Little company develops a great new product that the Army needs, but it’s not large enough to produce that product in the quantities and at the price demanded by the Army. Te Army isn’t being ruth- less here, but it is positioning DOD to gain a lot more involvement from small, innovative businesses that don’t tradition- ally sell to DOD. How? Even if the Army pays a small company to develop a break- through product but goes on to hire a big company to produce it in the necessary quantities, that’s still important business for that small company. And the taxpayer is reaping the benefit.
Act of Fiscal Year 2016 and by the $100 million authorization ceiling, was that the mechanism be used for prototyp- ing efforts. Terefore, it’s not the tool to contract for full Army fielding. So this kind of agreement is not a cure-all for anyone’s contracting woes. Once the user and the acquisition program manager agree to a capability after assessments of multiple prototypes, the PM can proceed with a standard FAR-based contract for full Army fielding of that capability. Tus, a PM will need to find a contracting offi- cer who can do both.
ADDING IT UP Let’s put it all together. What do you get when you mix middle-tier acquisition and other transaction agreements? Speed, plain and simple.
The mid-tier acquisition process, teamed with an other transaction agreement for contracting prototypes, provides small vendors the abil- ity to directly compete their prototypes against established DOD vendors—thus allowing the PM to contract directly with the small vendor to acquire those prototypes for user assess- ment. However, if the prototype meets the user’s needs, a contracting officer should
36 Army AL&T Magazine Spring 2019
Having a small, empowered team is the best method to fulfill the purpose of a mid- tier acquisition, allowing for rapid decision-making and delivery of a new capability to the warfighter.
NOT SO FAST It’s important to understand the limita- tions of an other transaction authority. Congress’ intent, made clear in Section 812 of the National Defense Authorization
Here’s a good example. Te Defense Tech- nical Information Center (DTIC) used the middle-tier acquisition process with an other transaction agreement to develop prototypes to mitigate the current threat of shoulder- launched missiles with infrared seekers. DTIC worked with the National Security Technology Accelerator, an organization that searches the world to find compa- nies with capabilities that can directly support the warfighter, and awarded an other transac- tion agreement for $15.2 million to Photo-Sonics Inc., a small company, to acquire prototypes that may have a capability. Under the mid-tier acquisition author- ity, Photo-Sonics won a DOD contract in 2018 to pursue this new capability.
Another example is the U.S. Army Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center using an other transaction agree- ment to engage the Defense Ordnance
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