For the next round of participants in a pilot program to Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT), the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) recently announced 13 projects will receive funding.
Helmed by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), this program is meant to hasten the transitioning of technologies into production, and subsequently field them for soldiers in the field. Priorities were given to technologies developed by small businesses and nontraditional defense contractors, to buck the trend of military industrial consolidation.
“Thanks to congressional support for APFIT in this year’s defense appropriation bill, R&E is accelerating the fielding of crucial capabilities to our warfighters,” Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, said.
APFIT was established under the Secretary of Defense as a competitive, merit-based program by the National Defense Authorization Act of fiscal year 2022. Original and mature technologies, and products meant to fill gaps in soldiers’ needs are the focus of support, to help them rapidly achieve the production phase.
Congress awarded APFIT $100 million for its first operations in 2022, but that figure has rapidly increased over the years – from $150 million in 2023 to $300 million this year. Over the past two years, 21 programs were selected for funding, including four awarded this February.
DOD said the latest round of projects included:
- Communications Mobile Gateway Buoy ($12.94 million)
- Family of Systems for Assured Movement and Maneuver ($15.95 million)
- Gladius Micro-High-Altitude Balloon Deployed Glider ($10 million)
- High Efficiency Phase Modulator ($11 million)
- Installation Resilience Operations Command and Control ($20 million)
- Majestic Alpha ($18.5 million)
- Project 711: Containerized Secure Units ($15.2 million)
- Classified ($13.65 million)
- Rack Mounted Optical Clocks ($22 million)
- Radome Operational Performance Evaluation ($10 million)
- Reducible Height Gunner Protection Kit ($19.721 million)
- Resilient Networking for Space Domain Awareness ($15.375 million)
- Ultra Long Endurance – Perpetual ($20.406 million)