{"id":5601,"date":"2020-03-29T09:45:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T12:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nachodelatorre.com.ar\/mosconi\/?p=5601"},"modified":"2020-03-29T09:45:42","modified_gmt":"2020-03-29T12:45:42","slug":"la-necesidad-de-sostener-la-base-industrial-para-la-defensa-en-tiempos-de-pandemia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/?p=5601","title":{"rendered":"La necesidad de sostener la base industrial para la defensa en tiempos de pandemia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>La US AIRFORCE ha implementado medidas excepcionales para contribu\u00edr al sostenimiento de la base industrial para la defensa, durante y despu\u00e9s de la pandemia de COVID-19. La reasignaci\u00f3n y demora de los recursos presupuestarios necesarios para la continuidad de los proyectos, motivo que las autoridades de esa Fuerza, adopten medidas excepcionales para garantizar el \u201ccash flow\u201d y liquidez en las empresas involucradas, especialmente las Pymes de alta tecnolog\u00eda.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>WASHINGTON: The Air Force has stood up a special acquisition task force to help keep its industrial base humming during, and after, the COVID-19 pandemic, says service acquisition czar Will Roper.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have mobilized the Department of the Air Force into a wartime acquisition posture, and that is the purpose of our acquisition COVID-19 task force,\u201d Roper told reporters in a teleconference today. \u201cWe are at war with this virus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The move follows in the footsteps of DoD Undersecretary for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord, who has set up a number of task forces as the Pentagon puts into place <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2020\/03\/covid-19-significant-help-for-defense-industry-in-2-trillion-relief-package\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package<\/a> passed by the Senate last night, the House this morning and on its way to President Donald Trump for signature. The package includes $10-plus billion for Pentagon response efforts,<a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2020\/03\/covid-19-congress-likely-to-slate-9-4b-to-dod-for-response\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> including $1.5 billion that could go directly to industry.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Raytheon&#039;s Joint Strike Missile\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wO9-EfPZPC8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cCash flow and liquidity are everything right now,\u201d Roper explained.<\/p>\n<p>One of key focuses is on small businesses and the startup ecosystem, he stressed, given that the Air Force over the past two years significantly ramping up its efforts to reap technology innovations from the commercial sector.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll of you know that small businesses are the most vulnerable right now,\u201d Roper said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to do things differently with our small companies than with our primes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As an example, Roper mentioned the move by the service\u2019s new <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2020\/03\/afventures-debuts-with-550-million-in-startup-awards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AFVentures<\/a> arm for startup investment to switch within 72 hours its planned <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2020\/02\/air-force-to-pump-new-tech-startups-with-10m-awards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u2018Pitch Bowl\u2019<\/a> at the March 13-20 South By Southwest festival in Austin to a virtual event. The event involved some 5,000 participants, he said and resulted in 599 contracts worth a total of almost $1 billion \u2014 \u201cthe single largest small business transaction in government history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was one of our first big virtualizing activities within acquisition,\u201d he said. \u201cWe flowed critical cash to companies who can burn it against that in their contracts now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Further, he said, the Air Force already has put out another solicitation asking small businesses who might be able to help with COVID-19 response \u201cto put their hands up so that we can get additional cash to them or put them on contract if their not already working with us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roper said the Air Force acquisition task force has \u201cfour lines of effort:\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u201cRelief.\u201d<\/strong> Roper said \u201cthese teams are thinking through external assistance requests that may potentially come in,\u201d and how best to apply contracting to move out \u201cbillions of dollars if needed.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cResilience.\u201d<\/strong> This is focusing on \u201cdefense industrial base health issues,\u201d he said. For example, if there are \u201csuppliers under duress, or small businesses that are not getting enough cash flow fast enough,\u201d are there ways the service can help?<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cRecovery.\u201d<\/strong> This team will look at what is needed after the crisis lifts. While Roper cautioned industry that \u201cCOVID-19 is not a blanket excuse for programs slipping to the right,\u201d he said the service will be mindful that some will do so \u2014 thus the \u201crecovery\u201d team will try to figure out what funding those programs might need to get back on track after a schedule slip.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u201cBeing rapid for small businesses.\u201d<\/strong> This effort, Roper said, is led by AFVentures, and is meeting daily to ensure the Air Force spends all of its small business funds. \u201cThey have been in training for this for two years,\u201d he said of AFVentures personnel. \u201cThey have demonstrated the ability to do more small business contracts that anyone in the government at speeds never seen.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Roper said that so far there have been \u201cno major delays\u201d in critical acquisition programs, such as the top priority <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/tag\/ground-based-strategic-deterrent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD)<\/a> to replace the aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles. Indeed, he said he talked with the GBSD team this morning who are \u201cdoing business as usual,\u201d only virtually.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, testing under the <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2020\/02\/skyborg-prototype-tops-air-force-3-2b-unfunded-priority-list-12-f-35s-too\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Skyborg program<\/a> not only is moving ahead, but Roper has given that acquisition team the go-head to \u201caccelerate solicitations as soon as they are ready.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under the program, the Skyborg \u201cbrain\u201d would use artificial intelligence to pilot low-cost \u201cattritable\u201d drones that would provide data (such as telemetry, flight plans and weather) to a manned fighter leading a formation \u2014 a job that a wingman\u2019s aircraft normally would do. While so far the only drone body to have flown the Skyborg computing package is the the <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2020\/01\/valkyrie-back-in-the-air-with-successful-flight-test\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Valkyrie, built by Kratos<\/a>, the service isn\u2019t ruling out using others.<\/p>\n<p>One of the key reasons that Air Force acquisition programs can keep moving, Roper said, is because of the service\u2019s past efforts to innovate in the area of information technology. Asked about the some $300 million in the coronavirus relief package slated for DoD to spend on IT to support teleworking, Roper wouldn\u2019t provide the exact Air Force share. But, he stressed that IT is key to DoD\u2019s success not just during this crisis but for the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInformation technology in the government has never been an exceptionally high priority, and it\u2019s been one of the most disappointing things to me about joining the government is having to have antiquated 1990s-era technologies to exchange information,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The Air Force\u2019s \u201cpivot\u201d to begin using commercial cloud technology \u2014 now embodied in the <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/tag\/cloudone\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">cloudONE<\/a> \u2014 has \u201creally benefited\u201d the service as the COVID-19 crisis has unfolded, he said. However, he added, a key barrier to taking full advantage of this tech are out-dated security measures \u2014 particularly around classified information \u2014 that have been in place for decades.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, he said, his office is working with DoD CIO <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/tag\/dana-deasy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dana Deasy<\/a> and his Air Force counterpart Bill Marion \u201cto try to smartly look at removing security restrictions and using new technology.\u201d If this effort is successful, he explained, \u201cthen we\u2019ll be able to work remotely as long as needed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The effort in part is bouncing off of Air Force\u2019s project \u2014 under its high-priority <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/tag\/advanced-battle-management-system\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Advanced Battle Management System<\/a>\u00a0designed to underpin <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/tag\/advanced-battle-management-system\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2)<\/a> \u2014 to develop the \u201cdeviceONE\u201d that can securely allow classified information to be relayed to tablets and handhelds for operators in the field, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line, Roper said, is that the changes in how the Air Force and DoD as a whole are working in driven by the pandemic are likely to have lasting effects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m excited to see what the Department of the Air Force will be like post-COVID-19, because with this much disruptive change happening in the government all at once, and rethinking about how we do our business, we won\u2019t go back to being the same department again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fuente:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2020\/03\/covid-19-roper-stands-up-task-force-to-assist-industrial-base\/?utm_campaign=Breaking%20News&amp;utm_source=hs_email&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=85399330&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8ZHL9DdIpz1HYiNcFouQmAexxejPjiOGsV779J2z2wntd4WFuEXfNyS_Mov6jm1D2mxjXNtkBcixaRIuFwI6coeGk_lw&amp;_hsmi=85399330\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>https:\/\/breakingdefense.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>La US AIRFORCE ha implementado medidas excepcionales para contribu\u00edr al sostenimiento de la base industrial para la defensa, durante y despu\u00e9s de la pandemia de&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5601"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}