The Department of Defense (DoD) picked the first four projects of fiscal year (FY) 2024 that will receive funding from the DoD’s Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) program.
“It was important to get a head start on the first round of FY24 projects as we await a full appropriation because of the critical capabilities they offer to the warfighter. We must continue to move fast in order to maintain our technological advantage against our adversaries,” Heidi Shyu, Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, said in a statement.
The APFIT program aims to expeditiously transition technologies into production, and to accelerate the fielding of needed technologies to the warfighter, with priority given to technologies developed by small businesses and nontraditional defense contractors.
“APFIT is an additional tool the DoD can use to propel innovative capabilities across the “Valley of Death” and accelerate fielding into the hands of warfighters,” the Department stated.
The National Defense Authorization Act of FY 2022 established APFIT under the Secretary of Defense as a competitive, merit-based program for innovative and mature technologies and products that can meet warfighter demands but lack the necessary funding to transition the capability into the production phase.
In FY 2022 Congress provided DoD $100 million to fund APFIT, later in FY 2023 it increased funding to $150 million.
To date, twenty-one DoD programs were selected to receive APFIT funding to procure innovative technologies from these small businesses and nontraditional defense contractors.
According to Shyu, APFIT has a proven track record of accelerating capabilities by many years, “and our warfighters will greatly benefit from accelerated feilding of the capabilities” from the four projects the DoD announced.
The APFIT program will provide FY24 Continuing Resolution funds to the following projects:
- Accelerated Procurement of Maritime Expeditionary Standoff Response Advanced Capability Modules – $11.95M, U.S. Marine Corps.
- ARCHER Airborne Threat Detection & Tracking – $13.55M, U.S. Air Force.
- Electronic Intelligence Modernization Upgrade (EIMU) Production – $14.40M, U.S. Navy.
- Micro Identify Friend or Foe – $10.10M, U.S. Marine Corps.
The DoD expects to make additional selections following an appropriation.
