Air Force RFI Signals Earlier Engagement With Industry and Shift in Acquisition Approach

How to support U.S. Air Force reoptimization for great power competition has the Department of the Air Force’s (DAF’s) acquisition arm shifting how it approaches industry, said Andrew Hunter, assistant secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics.

The acquisition leader spoke to reporters at the Air and Space Forces Association's annual conference on September 16.

“The secretary and the chief described the strategic logic for change, for why the Air Force has to approach all of its business to enable the missions assigned to us in the National Defense Strategy, and to do that at a much higher level of integration, especially in the capability development process,” Hunter shared. “And in order to have an acquisition system that can really deliver on that challenge, we have to be able to integrate from the front end.”

The DAF is using this approach for the Next Generation Air-refueling System (NGAS), Hunter noted.

Leaders issued a request for information (RFI) on September 13 to industry for the NGAS effort that was announced 18 months ago. The effort is meant to handle threats to Air Force refueling forces, including for midair refueling and fueling for large body aircraft needed to support combat forces.

The RFI, which is open for submissions until November 1, encourages industry to submit capability information that could increase the survivability of tankers and other systems during operations in a dispersed and contested near-peer environment.

The Future Tankers Systems Program Office in the Air Force Materiel Command’s Air Force Life Cycle Management Center/Mobility Aircraft Directorate is conducting the research.

“The DAF is in the early stages of identifying the requirements for NGAS,” the RFI stated. “The DAF is seeking to identify potential industry partners with potential solutions to increase the NGAS tanker’s capability to air-refuel and survive within a contested environment. Systems of interest are mission systems, other novel technology or employment concepts.”

The RFI is pulling in knowledge of industry solutions much earlier in a major solicitation process.

“It is all tied up in what I have been calling our next-generation acquisition model,” Hunter explained. “One element of the model is that we do development planning. The other is, in part, a difference in how we approach industry. The goal with this RFI is to get industry engaged in our programmatic efforts sooner.”

The DAF is just now considering what the notion of an NGAS might look like, what kind of system it might it be, Hunter stated. After that step, the leaders will begin the requirements formulation process.

“And we want to do that with industry,” the acquisition leader emphasized. “One of the big signals from this RFI is that we want to engage industry early and have them help us inform our requirements generation process and do it in an iterative fashion.”

In addition, the DAF wants to pull into its major acquisitions “a pretty broad swath of industry” as part of a vendor pool, beyond traditional defense companies.

The RFI represents the start of establishing such a potential vendor pool.

Additionally, the DAF has created a new position to lead developmental planning, called the capability development executive officer, or CDEO, which will be Gen. Duke Richardson, the commander of Air Force Materiel Command.

Hunter considers putting the CDEO in place as a first step toward establishing the Integrated Development Office (IDO) within the Air Force Materiel Command..

“The idea of the CDEO is that there will be someone in the Air Force who is responsible for something the Air Force used to do, but that we got away from, which is called development planning,” he clarified. “It's basically saying we understand where we need to go, and we've laid the foundation for how we're going to get there. It's not all of the individual programs. It's not program management, per se.”

The IDO, meanwhile, will drive integration into the Air Force, with a specific leader answering for that responsibility.

Moreover, the DAF’s approach with the RFI targets mission systems first, not the airframe. Traditionally, the Air Force would issue a major solicitation for an airframe and the components with one vendor managing the integration.

“It is very specifically for mission systems,” Hunter noted. “Another element of our next-generation acquisition model is having direct relationships where it makes sense and where we can, with our mission system providers. It is not simply working through a prime on individual platforms.”

This approach is needed, he said, given the potential of high-intensity conflict with a peer competitor.

“The first is starting early with industry,” Hunter clarified. "The second is involving industry in requirements, and the third is the mission-systems focus and having that direct relationship."