ENSURING SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF COMMERCIAL ITEMS IN AIR FORCE SYSTEMS

摘要

Our future military programs will require an increasing use of Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS)rntechnologies. The U.S. Air Force recently sponsored a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) to review andrnrecommend an Air Force policy regarding the use of COTS technologies in products for their programs.rnThis presentation will discuss the actions, findings, and recommendations of that board. During thisrnstudy, the board panel members interviewed 34 programs and organizations throughout the UnitedrnStates. Issues, benefits, best practices, success factors and limitations in the use of COTS products asrndetermined from these reviews will be described. Issues affecting the use of COTS will be addressedrnfrom the perspective of the product, the acquisition process, the logistics and support and the impact tornindustry and government personnel. Best practices and key success factors are identified in the areas ofrnacquisition, system development and management. A fundamental cultural shift from the traditionalrnseries - parallel development in which most new technology items are built from scratch to a new spiralrndevelopment approach in which we buy, integrate and continuously refresh the product will berndiscussed.rnThe elements of the proposed COTS Policy for the Air Force will be described.rnRecommendations will include changes to the acquisition strategy and the source selection evaluation.rnImproved interaction between government and contractor program management, new source selectionrntools, and expanded education and training in COTS issues are also outlined.