The Department of Defense cannot afford a 15-year acquisition cycle time when the comparable commercial turnover is every three to four years. The issue is not only cost. The lives of our soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen may depend upon shortened acquisition cycle times as well. In a global market, everyone, including our potential adversaries, will gain increasing access to the same commercial technology base. The military advantage goes to the nation who has the best cycle time to capture technologies that are commercially available, incorporate them in weapon systems and get them fielded first.
Small business can help the department capture commercial technologies and products.
They reached this conclusion by observing that a dual-use approach is the key to SBIR success. The experience of Savi Technology, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., is a good illustrative case of what the team found to support this conclusion. Savi Technology developed the industry s first radio computer tag, using a combination of DoD SBIR funding and private venture capital. The tag is a miniature radio transceiver with an embedded microprocessor. Its small size allows it to be attached to anything that moves, with the purpose of automatically reporting the item s location.