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Air Force Open Systems Acquisition

Air Force Research Laboratory. Air Force Open Systems Acquisition. June 2015. Michael J. Mayhew, DR-III AFRL/RIEB Michael.Mayhew.1@us.af.mil. Open Systems Acquisition (OSA). Bending the Cost Curve. SAF/AQ Office of Transformational Innovation (OTI) brief Dr. Camron Gorguinpour.

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Air Force Open Systems Acquisition

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  1. Air Force Research Laboratory Air Force Open Systems Acquisition June 2015 Michael J. Mayhew, DR-III AFRL/RIEB Michael.Mayhew.1@us.af.mil

  2. Open Systems Acquisition (OSA) Bending the Cost Curve SAF/AQ Office of Transformational Innovation (OTI) brief Dr. Camron Gorguinpour

  3. OSA Experiment & Other-Transaction Objectives • OBJECTIVE: Modernize Command, Control, Communications, and Cyber Intelligence Surveillance & Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Information Systems using agile developed “plug-n-play” technologies via modern open systems architectures. • BENEFITS: Provide open, agile, information-based, services oriented system built upon modern Open System Approaches that will significantly change the way our systems currently perform and provide rapid adaptation and integration of new capabilities. • SCOPE: Research, development, test, engineering, certification, modeling and simulations, measurement, and integration of tools using an innovative, rapid acquisition process for Air Force “open-systems” based C4ISR Information Systems (Such as: Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS), Theater Battle Management Core Systems (TBMCS), Air Operations Center- Weapons System (AOC WS), and others).

  4. How it Works

  5. Learn By Doing Several projects/programs USAF OTA $99M ceiling Well established best practice FY17 FY16 One project, one program FY15 Crawl Walk Teleport Sustained off-the-shelf capability Thriving market of rapidly evolving, pre-approved, interoperable capability Fielded prototype

  6. Iterative Workflow

  7. Collaboration between SAF/AQ, AFRL/RI, and Information Systems Special Projects Offices (SPOs)promotes: Technologies integrated within modernized infrastructures Significant expansion of performance & agility Significant decreases in time to field, lifecycle management, and cost. Combination of non-traditional contractors with traditional mentors (Consortium) provides iterative rapidly developed/integrated capabilities Use of modernized open architectures provides capabilities that meet warfighter requirements over the program lifecycle New & existing OTs enable and encourages broader range of commercial firms to help in developing defense systems OSA Unique Features

  8. DCGS OSA ExperimentMulti-Releasable Intelligence Product (MRIP) Mission Thread Identification Training for Plug-Test Event Plug-Test Event Vendor Development & Testing Scenario & Rqmts. Virtualized Env. To Test Facilitators Government Test Sample Data Sets To Test Team TEMs w/ vendors We Are Here Plug-Test Evaluation Request for Proposal Post Award Contract Transition to Weapons System Capability Eval. Vendor Plan & SOW Additional Dev. A & A Testing Document Eval. Contract Negotiations Integration w / WS Product LMC Gov. Down-Select Contract Awards

  9. Lessons Learned The following slides represent a sampling of some of the lessons learned in planning, leading, and testing new agile capabilities utilizing Open System Acquisition concepts for Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) Modernization

  10. Lessons Learned(Bending the Cost Curve) OTA vehicles promote agility, but current policy and acquisition processes need improvement – While OTAs promote agility for non-traditional performers to get their products the field, there are a number of improvements that can be made in setting up and maintaining those vehicles to promote improved timeliness of awards Open System Acquisition (OSA) requires agility that many weapons systems are not ready to adapt to – Most legacy systems are old and un-adaptive to modern technologies. Trying to cobble these together into a cohesive system is problematic. Systems must first adopt Open Systems Architectures and solid Services Interfaces before we can truly see the benefits of OSA With constant experimentation and augmentation; OSA benefits to the development and sustainment of our weapons systems can be achieved –With only a handful of experiments on-going, a number of lessons learned have already been achieved, and frequent revisions to the model will greatly improve the status quo for future experiments

  11. Lessons Learned(Bending the Cost Curve) HanscommilCloud isn’t free – There is a large footprint of support, education, and systems administration that is needed to provide a virtual environment for vendors to work in Collaboration with SPOs to clearly define mission thread and system requirements up front is critical to success – There must be operator buy-in to the technology being developed and it must be well described to vendors that articulates why the mission is important Ensure support environment and all data artifacts are available before vendors are added – Trying to update as you go, is problematic and frustrates vendors who are always having to adapt to newly added components and data Limiting data and documentation of operational weapon systems is extremely challenging - Doing so requires significant time and effort to tailor artifacts for open dissemination – Verisign ECA cert process was also deemed difficult and often unresponsive by performers

  12. Lessons Learned(Interaction with Consortium) Membership fees must to be fair to all – Participation of non-traditional performers come in all sizes and having a one-size fee severely impacts membership and hampers performer satisfaction Consortium must be agile and responsive to its performers – Open Systems Acquisition (OSA) requires lots of flexibility and rapid reaction to changes along the way. Performers get frustrated when consortium can’t quickly adapt to their needs when requested Consortium must actively promote new membership and engage on member teaming – Emerging non-traditional performers need to understand the benefits of membership in order to entice them to join. Existing members must engage with new members and work closer together to increase teaming Consortium must clearly identify the services being provided to its members – Members need to understand what benefits the consortium provides that can help them in receiving new contract awards

  13. Lessons Learned(Interaction with Consortium) Constant interaction with performers during development is critical for success – Through frequent training sessions, active on-line forum collaboration, and technical exchanges with all members of the team; performers feel welcomed, maintain synergy, and actively participate in shaping the technology to meet the needs of the users Video and other Teleconferencing must be augmented with face-to-face exchanges – Vendors love the frequency of interaction, but assembling all the players together for face-to-face exchanges is problematic and expensive. However, a mixture of both proves to be a valuable forum to explain key concepts as well as engage vendors in expressing their ideas Maintain a common POC and forum for rapid response to team needs and concerns – Performers in agile environments need constant attention to their needs. Having a single voice / forum to engage with them ensures all feedback is unified and the message remains clear and focused

  14. Lessons Learned(Plug Test and Beyond..) Coming Soon…..

  15. Lessons Learned(Feedback Samplings)

  16. Lessons Learned(What Performers Said…) “HmCworks great. Very responsive and effective support.” “HmC environment saves tons of time.” “Verisign ECA cert support is really bad.” “TEMs have been well prepared. Back and forth discussion on 04/23 TEM has been outstanding.” “A lot of time spent trying to understand the 'as is' process and baseline applications - our 'point of departure' so to speak. 04/23 TEM helped. Recommend explicitly documenting 'as is' work process via e.g. screen movies.”

  17. Partnering for Success • As with all BTCC activities, success cannot be achieved without significant collaboration with industry: • Join the Open System Acquisition Consortium (or compete in the RFP process to establish the consortium) • AFRL DRAFT RFP for the first Air Force Open System Acquisition Consortium, View on FedBizOpps or www.plugfestplus.org • Tell a friend • Partnerships with other DOD and federal agencies is also critical: • Open System Acquisition vehicle is available to all government entities • Input from other potential government customers is incredibly valuable • Tell more friends

  18. Conclusion The Air Force is committed to identifying and implementing innovative business approaches to deliver better, faster, and cheaper capabilities to our Airmen Open Architecture Systems are an integral part of Air Force goals, but current business practices are prohibitive Open System Acquisition efforts aim to close that gap Continued partnerships with industry (and other government agencies) are integral to building a viable acquisition process for the 21st Century

  19. Questions? 19

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