The Department of Defense announced today that it has selected 42 new-start projects to receive fiscal 2006 funding under the Comparative Testing Office (CTO) – 20 under the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) program and 22 under the Defense Acquisition Challenge (DAC) program.
The FCT and DAC programs support the U.S. warfighter by leveraging mature equipment and technologies from allied and coalition partner nations and domestic industry to satisfy U.S. defense requirements. They accelerate the acquisition process, reduce development costs and provide opportunities for the introduction of innovative and cost-saving technologies into existing DoD acquisition programs. At the same time, by staying focused on the capabilities required for the global war on terrorism, FCT and DAC programs enhance interoperability with coalition partners, strengthen defense relationships, and frequently serve as a catalyst for partnering between domestic and overseas defense industries.
The success of the FCT and DAC programs demonstrates the U.S. commitment to the “two-way street” in defense procurement, said Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Advanced Systems and Concepts Sue C. Payton, who oversees the CTO. “That is, the willingness of our allies and coalition partners to share their technology and compete in the U.S. defense market, and the enthusiasm of small and medium domestic industries to ‘challenge’ current acquisition programs at the component, system or sub-system level.”
The military services and U.S. Special Operations Command nominated more than 120 candidate projects for CTO funding consideration. Each proposed project was carefully reviewed to ensure the equipment or technology addressed valid warfighter needs and confirm that the U.S. military sponsor had developed a viable acquisition strategy to procure and field the equipment if it tested successfully and offered the best value.
Of the 42 new FCT and DAC projects for fiscal 2006, 11 are sponsored by the Army, 11 by the Navy and Marine Corps, 10 by the Air Force, and 10 by the U.S. Special Operations Command. Information about the new projects is available at: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2006/d20060425CTOProject.pdf .
Additional information on the FCT and DAC programs can be found on the CTO homepage athttp://www.acq.osd.mil/cto/.
