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Army Seeks Small Business Innovators for 'Fire Faster'

New SPARTN program will allow more collaboration between the Army and small businesses.

M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzers from Battery B, 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment “Battlekings,” 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, sit ready to fire at Fort Stewart, Georgia, September 11, 2014. Credit: U.S. Army/Staff Sgt. Richard Wrigley

A first-of-its-kind Army Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) pilot seeks to leverage small business innovators to help increase the rate of fire of self-propelled howitzer systems. A new program, the Special Program Awards for Required Technology Needs (SPARTN), is combining government and industry best practices to introduce a whole-of-Army, collaborative approach to solution innovation.

SPARTN was created to incentivize small technology firms to work with the Department of Defense to propose Army modernization solutions. The goal is for those commercial solvers to create systems or subsystems that not only solve Fire Faster, but also become sources of long-term commercial revenue. Small businesses have long faced challenges with transparency, access and capital when working with the Army. The program is meant to tackle these barriers.

SPARTN’s aim is to have companies on contract 30 days after the close of the submission period. The program nearly doubles the amount of capital available under SBIR Phase I, up to $200,000 for a four-month period of performance, with substantial increases for Phase II and beyond.

The application period for “Fire Faster” is September 18 to October 6. To learn more attend one of the topic-specific webinars or visit aal.army/SPARTN.