Army Adds Element of Surprise to Technology Search

摘要

Being surprised on the battlefield is never a good thing, but Army officials, who are focused on modernizing the force, welcome industry-especially small businesses-to offer solutions they didn't know existed and didn't know they needed. The xTechSearch competition seeks novel, disruptive concepts and technologies to support the Army's top modernization priorities, all of which contribute to the service's vision of multidomain operations, or MDO. The MDO concept describes how the U.S. Army, as part of the joint force, can counter and defeat a near-peer adversary in all domains in the 2025-2050 timeframe. The xTechSearch program provides cash prizes to selected small businesses to proceed through four phases of the technology competition. The focus is primarily on so-called nontraditional companies that may have never done business with the Army. Some may have never worked with other parts of the military or the federal government. Ultimately, finalists receive awards of $120,000 each and will be invited to demonstrate proofs of concept of their dual-use technologies to a panel of Army judges.