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Air Force Reveals Same-Day Contracting Opportunity

Service aims at increasing work with small businesses.

Heather Wilson, secretary of the Air Force; Gen. David L. Goldfein, USAF, Air Force chief of staff; and John H. Pendleton, director, defense capabilities and management, U.S. Government Accountability Office, speak about Air Force Readiness to the Senate Armed Services Committee. They discussed topics such as closing the maintainer’s gap, training ranges and cost effectiveness in logistics. (Photo by Wayne Clark)

Small businesses will be invited to submit their best solutions to the U.S. Air Force for the opportunity to participate in pitch sessions scheduled for March 6-7, 2019. Prior to the event, the service will reveal a list of requirements, requesting five-page white papers from organizations describing their products or services. Businesses offering the solutions with most potential will be asked to take part in the two-day event and could receive a one-page contract immediately.

“We did an experiment where we wanted to do 50 contracts in 50 hours. We ended up doing 104 contracts with small business, and that was kind of a dry run [for the upcoming event],” U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said.

Prior to what’s being called “pitch day,” the Air Force will describe some of its toughest problems in areas such as software, intelligence and special operations via venues such as LinkedIn and other websites. The service also plans to include an open category so businesses with innovative ideas in other fields can participate.

“At pitch day, if we like your idea, you can walk out that day with a one-page contract, and with a swipe of a government credit card, [you’ll receive] your first down payment for working for the United States Air Force as a contractor,” Wilson explained.

“We want to get small innovative companies able to do work with the United States Air Force, and we're willing to change the way we do business in order to do it,” she said.

Under current procurement laws, the Air Force is required to spend $660 million annually with small businesses. “We think there are innovative small businesses out there that we want to work even more closely with,” Wilson stated.

The site of the first two-day event has not yet been decided; however, the location has been narrowed down to two cities.