New APFIT Pilot Program Removes Financial Barriers for Small Business DoD Contractors

Posted by James Lusk on

Landing a contract with the DoD can be a game changer, especially for small businesses. The stability of demand can’t be beat, not to mention the sheer size of the orders you could potentially be shipping out. It can be a source of instant and exponential growth. So what’s keeping most small businesses from pursuing these transformative opportunities? It seems that ramping up production to meet higher demands is a challenge keeping many promising technologies from benefitting our troops.

According to the Department of Defense, there is real potential in many small businesses to become valuable defense contractors. So much so that the Secretary of Defense was directed by the National Defense Authorization Act of FY22 to establish the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) program. The objective of APFIT is to deliver war-winning capabilities to our armed forces quicker by providing a total of $100M in funding for innovative and mature technologies that can meet DoD demands but lack the capital to transition into the production delivery phase. Additionally, this merit-based program gives priority to technologies developed by small businesses and/or nontraditional defense contractors.

Recently, the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering announced the first set of projects to receive APFIT funding. These projects include advanced sensor packages for underwater unmanned vehicles, autonomous unmanned aerial systems, atmospheric plasma coating removal systems for reducing repair times, and augmented reality tactical assault kits for mission planning and operations rehearsal (among others). Not only do each of these projects share a technological advantage to U.S. armed forces, but they were also all created by small and nontraditional businesses.

As demonstrated by the new APFIT program, the DoD has a keen interest in increasing the number of small operations with whom they do business. So if concerns about meeting the demands that a DoD contract would place upon your small organization have kept you from pursuing one, it might be time for a second thought.

In addition to the incentives such as the APFIT program, small businesses can also stack the odds of DoD contract success in their favor by leveraging the Odyssey platform. Odyssey’s technology was specifically designed for DoD contractors, eliminating manual tasks and associated human errors while freeing up staff’s time to focus on fulfilling their contract.

To learn more about how Odyssey can help align your organization for success in doing business with the DoD, contact us today.