Air Force grows pool of companies on $900M prototyping vehicle
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By
Ross Wilkers
After this round of on-ramp awards, 159 contractors are competing for work to study technologies and systems for quick integration.
The Air Force has added approximately five dozen companies to a potential 10-year, $900 million contract vehicle for broad technology prototyping and development services focused on multi-domain systems capabilities.
That group of 66 contractors joined the program through an on-ramp process that saw the Air Force receive 70 bids in pursuit of an award, according to the Pentagon's Friday awards digest.
An initial batch of awards went to 93 companies in December 2022 for this program called the Architecture and Integration Directorate Multiple Award Indefinite Quantity Contract, or AFLCMC/XA MAC IDIQ.
The Air Force's Lifecycle Management Center, which is part of the branch's Material Command, manages the procurement as part of its responsibility for delivering "innovative" solutions across the entire Air Force to build a foundation for integrating new and emerging technologies.
Now standing at 159, this roster of contractors is competing for work to study technologies and systems that can be more rapidly prototyped and transitioned into operational use.
Some of the vehicle's key technology areas of interest include digital engineering, synthetic testing and training, cybersecurity, modified hardware and software, and data models.