Air Force wants its acquisition tools in the cloud

The Air Force has officially launched an effort to overhaul the technology tools its acquisition teams use access software, data and collaboration tools across the entire service branch.

Currently called LaunchPad 2.0, the Air Force envisions this future digital environment as the successor to the LaunchPad platform that currently focuses on engineering users.

Air Force leaders now want to expand that model to support the entire lifecycle of acquisition that also includes aspects such as program management and logistics, according to a sources sought notice posted Tuesday.

The accompanying draft performance work statement describes how the Air Force is looking to stand up LaunchPad's second iteration as a cloud-based platform that gives users secure, centralized access to commercial software tools.

LaunchPad 2.0 should support an initial 4,000 users and grow to as many as 80,000 users by 2030, the request for information says.

Other key aspects of LaunchPad 2.0 will include:

• Operating at both the secret and controlled unclassified information levels
• Integration with enterprise systems and authoritative data sources
• Deployment of software within six weeks of approval
• Built-in support for artificial intelligence integration, data sharing and cross-domain collaboration

Responses to the request for information are due no later than 11 a.m. Eastern time on April 7.