NAC-DOTC Quarterly Newsletter: Spring

QUARTERLY NEWSLETTERNational Armaments Consortium Jan to Mar 2016Ratcliff Kicks Off Membership MeetingMarch 23, 2016 - The National ArmamentsConsortium held its annual General Member-ship Meeting March 22-24, in Parsippany, NJ.Over 500 representatives from Government,Industry and Academia participated to networkand advance the research, development anddeployment of critical innovations. Attendeesheard directly from program offices and thewarfighter with dynamic and informative up-dates.Ms. Adele Ratcliff, Director of DoD Manufactur- Members networking duringing Technology (ManTech), provided the key- the poster session.note address. She stressed the importance ofindustrial-based policy issues. Also featured this year, was a Weapons TechnologiesCommunity of Interest presentation by Mike Zoltoski, Chairman, Weapons Technolo- Welcome! As a member of the NAC, we hope that you will find this to be a useful,gies COI/Chief, Lethality Division US Army Research Lab. interesting and informative format to share program updates and important infor-“People often refer to us as Leadership from ACC-NJ, RDECOM-ARDEC mation, as well as communication fromthe ‘Tip of the Spear’,” said Legal Office and NAC clarified OTA legislation NAC and DOTC leadership. Each quarter, changes; reviewed requirements, processes and you can expect to find program success NAC Speaker LTC Troy definition updates to Section 815 and trained stories, meaningful metrics, the latest Denomy when describing attendees on winning proposal strategies during news and what that means for our consor- the first day’s events. tium as we move forward. his experience duringmultiple tours in Iraq. “But it The second day included direct input and real In this newsletter, you will find a review of world perspectives from the warfighter, updates the recent General Membership Meeting, a is you all that provide us from OUSD, Army and Navy program leadership. call to action on our new members only with that ‘tip’ with A brief awards ceremony acknowledged signifi- website, and key metrics review. I hope technology for the cant contributions from NAC member organiza- you will take time to read-through this in- tions and the DOTC team for their record setting, formation, and use it so that we may morewarfighter. For that we say, efficient award processes. effectively connect and collaborate as we “Thank you.” continue to further the NAC mission.For more information about the program, please visit the NAC website. For future newsletters, we encourage you to send in your thoughts for articles and Keynote Adele Ratcliff LTC Denomy speaks of his any questions or concerns so that we can addresses attendees. wartime experience. make this newsletter as useful and benefi- cial to our members as possible. We wel-nac-dotc.org come your ideas – we need your feedback to make this platform a useful tool to con- nect as members. Simply put, our efforts are to not only inform, but to encourage and enable collaboration. 1

National Armaments Consortium Jan to Mar 2016Get Connected! strategic partner in your future endeavor. tise thatWe are very proud and excited to Our goal is to help you \"mine\" the data, anotherintroduce our new NAC Members Only turn it into information, and establish com-website! The purpose of this site is to munication with Members sharing your memberconnect, discover, communicate and interests. Each member will have controlcollaborate so that we may innovate in of their unique member profile – the place may helporder to accelerate technology develop- where you can represent yourself to otherment and rapidly respond to the needs of NAC members. fill. Weour Warfighters. TAKE ACTION! want toI ask each of you to log in and \"look Members, this is your call to action! Thearound,\" and as you do, think about it as information is only as good as you make knowmuch more than just a website. It is a it. That's why we ask all members toportal to a virtual environment for collabo- update your member profiles with pur- what are-ration and networking. Its very best capa- poseful, thorough, and timely information.bility is that you will be able to easily Please update your current capabilities, as you areperform multi-faceted searches for other areas of interest, research, or possibleMember companies to help you build a future activity. Additionally, tell us where exploringteam for a specific project or to find a there is a gap in your capability or exper- or inter- A letter from George Solhan, ested in Director of Customer Affairs collaborat- ing with other members. The more infor- mation that we can share with one anoth- er, the more we collaborate. And that’s where great innovation begins. Our team eagerly await your comments and suggestions to make it even better.DOTC, NAC & Better Buying PowerSetting the Gold Standard for Better Buying PowerR ecently, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition,  “We need to reduce cycle time, eliminate unproductive Technology and Logistics (USD, AT&L, Hon. Frank Ken- bureaucracy, and increase our agility by accepting moredall) outlined 10 Better Buying Power (BBP) Principles. The prin- risk when it is warranted. All of these measures are BBPciples of BBP, now in its third iteration or referred to as BBP 3.0, initiatives.”outline the need for an agile and fast-acting enterprise to bringsuperior innovation and faster results for our military. For exam- DOTC, an enterprise to bring together the DoD Ordnance Com-ple, Principle 9 states, “Our technological superiority is at risk munity of government entities and the NAC, a diverse member-and we must respond.” The mission strategy of DOTC and the ship of traditional and nontraditional organizations, have becomeNAC align with these principles, and we are setting a \"gold a benchmark for how Defense consortia partnerships can accel-standard\" for how BBP 3.0 can turn rapid technology develop- erate innovation and address the specific BPP 3.0 areas Mr.ment into real-world innovation for a superior Warfighter. Specific Kendall emphasizes.to Principle 9, Mr. Kendall recognized that: Since 2002, the DOTC enterprise has awarded over $1.5B in “BBP 3.0 focuses on all the ways in which we expend total funding through 600+ awards in 10 technology areas. It's research and development (R&D) funding (DoD labora- important to remember that the enterprise was originally char- tories, industry independent R&D, contracted R&D, etc.) tered by a previous USD, AT&L with the intention of strengthen- and on the opportunities to spend those funds more produc- ing the ordnance Industrial Base. With NAC now boasting 380+ tively.” members from business, academia, non-profits, defense con- tractors and other organizations, there is greater access for in- “BBP 3.0 also includes the increased use of experimental dustry leaders to partner for faster results. These collaborative prototypes and other measures designed to spur inno- efforts streamline planning, acquisition and proposal processes vation—such as early concept definition by industry and to get to the business of rapid innovation and prototyping. monetary incentives to industry to develop and offer higher- than-threshold performance levels.” Our dedicated effort to work together for genuine, fruitful collabo- ration is and will continue to meet the challenges set before us, and set the standard for how BBP 3.0 can reach its full potential.nac-dotc.org 2

National Armaments Consortium Jan to Mar 2016Where We Are & Where We’re Going: The Health of the NAC By many measures, the NAC and DOTC enterprise has seen phenomenal growth over the years. As we look back on the close of GFY15, take stock of GFY16, and prepare for GFY17, I wanted to highlight some of the measures that the leadership actively moni- tors to ensure the continued health of the organization. INITIATIVE AWARDS We received 106 new awards in GFY15 spread across our 10 technology areas with more thanWritten by Charlie Zisette, $380M in funding obliga- NAC Executive Director tions. We anticipate theawards for GFY16 to exceed GFY15 in both number andfunding obligations. We expect continued growth acrossall technology areas.REQUIREMENTS & SUBMISSIONSThe recently released GFY17 Annual Technology Plan has 395 requirements. This is nearly a 50% growth over lastyear, illustrating the DoDs commitment to our enterprise! White papers also continue to be an important part of our pro-cess. On average, we submit one half the num-ber of proposals based on white paper feedback.This translates to a huge savings in proposaltime and money that our NAC members wouldotherwise be expending. I also believe it reflectsthe level of collaboration that is occurring duringthis process. Our challenge is to digest theGFY17 plan and respond with the most innova-tive solutions to our DoD partners! This is goingto be an exciting year for our membership andfor the DOTC program.We want you to know that you are a member ofa thriving organization. We are working hard tomanage this growth and stay agile and streamlined in our process.Continuous improvement initiatives are underway with our DOTC program stakeholders to adjust our process and staff-ing to meet the demands of our growth. We are a continuously learning organization that is never satisfied with our cur-rent state. We can and will be better each year.Continued on page 4nac-dotc.org 3

National Armaments Consortium Jan to Mar 2016Continued from page 3Another key element in managing growth is being strategic in our planning. All of us need Ashley Hannahto be able to understand and articulate our values, vision, mission, and goals of the NAC. EditorIn GFY17 we will be providing our members with a Strategic Plan that does just that. It isimportant that we act deliberately and strategically as we mature as an enterprise. I look We welcome feedback!forward to working with you over the coming months as we embark on this strategic plan- Please send thoughts,ning process. suggestions and future article ideas to the editor:MEMBERSHIP [email protected] the end of GFY15,there were 337 NAC Nontraditional 285members. Today that Traditional 140number stands at 382and it continues togrow daily. We haveseen an unprecedent-ed number of applica-tions with many or-ganizations joining atthe request of theirGovernment customer. We expect the membership to grow to 440 before the close ofGFY16. It is critically important that you take the time to use our NAC website to reviewthe capabilities of our members and reach out to collaborate and develop relationships sothat the best technology solutions can be offered.Additional Contact Information: Did You Know?CHARLIE ZISETTE NAC/DOTC uses an online submission and evaluation portal called BIDS located at https://nac-dotc.acqcenter.comNAC Executive [email protected] Members submitting whitepapers and proposals must estab- lish a “Submitter” account to access the submission forms.GEORGE SOLHAN Note this is separate from the NAC Members Only websiteNAC Director of Customer Affairs [email protected] PELTONAC Consortium Management [email protected] 843 760 3486nac-dotc.org 4