6 January 2021 OSD Call Notes

OSD A&S:

• This was Amy Murray’s last meeting as Deputy DASD. These meetings will continue on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month starting February 3rd, since January 20th runs into the Inauguration.
• The Trusted Capital Market Place is live. This is an initiative from Hon Lord on the capability to bring in embedded capital partners. During this process A&S will rule out foreign ownership, insider threat, etc. and invite them into their digital salesforce marketplace. They’ve zeroed in on 27 core technologies they want to focus on and it’s been given to the COCOMs.
• Next, the associations will each get a log-in that we will distribute to companies looking to submit white papers to DOD. It will get sent to the services who will decide if they would like to continue the conversation with that company on that white paper. If so, the company will receive an application, A&S will review it and conduct due diligence, and then open the market place so companies can go in and say we are looking at a potential contract with DOD, we need some capital investment- and this is mainly to help in creating dual use- anything from drones to hypersonics and the supply chains within them. A&s will have to ensure there is a dual-use capability within them to drive down the cost of the product and to give industry the opportunity to grow.
• Legislative proposals are under development for the upcoming session of Congress. A&S is partnering with Senator Scott and Senator Cory Booker on the Opportunity to Invest Act. If there’s a company located in one of these opportunity zones allocated in the legislation, investors can waive off capital gains tax for 7 years.
• A&S is looking to use 2371 Bravo authorities to invest in capabilities that will benefit DOD and National Security.
• Finally, they have industry tours. What they will take out of the acquisition fields are 05s, 06s and civilians who will get paid to work with a financial firm for 6 months to learn how they’re structuring their deals so the DOD can become cohesive with how the commercial markets work- what are their incentives, rate of returns, etc. A press conference for Hon. Lord is scheduled for Friday afternoon to discuss this.

DLA:

• On Dec 17th, DLA Demands Forecast Webinar took place with 11 associations participating, who received a high-level look at the demand forecast across DLA’s supply chains as well as services acquisition. This has been posted to their Website so if you’re interested, you can find it in the strategic plan area.
• The next Doing business with DLA webinar will take place next Wednesday at 1:30. Info is available on their site if you wish to participate.

DASMP:

• Staff for the Director of Program Analysis and Business Transformation joined the call to discuss a new initiative launched by Hondo Gertz with the Foreign Investment Cyber Team. The goal of the initiative is to identify methodologies to minimize the national security risks associated with the industrial base and adversarial foreign capital. This is capturing foreign influence on research and development, A&S programs, and flaws in supply chain resiliency.
• They are looking for actionable recommendations within 120 days and looking to partner with OCOs, TFO (Task Force Ocean), FBI, NCIS, and each of the other services. The survey has 12 questions and will come out next week. Responses will not be exempt from FOIA but all responses are voluntary.
• Some of the questions cover topics like how far down the supply chain do you track, do you track foreign investment on your supply chain, where do you see risks in the next 1, 3, and 5 years, etc.
• This will be distributed through associations so once Keith and I receive it, we will share it with members.

Small Business:

• Army: For the first quarter of FY21, $4.8B has been allocated to small business, which is twice the amount allocated in FY20.
• Navy: 11% of funding has been allocated to small business, which comes out to $7.6B. $117M has been spent toward the COVID effort, $30m of that has gone to small business.
• Airforce: They are tracking $25B, which is 19.75% going directly to small business.

DCMA:

• DCMA continues to track DIB closures and has 2 full and 1 partial closure to report today. Covid-19 cases across the country and globe will continue to impact the DIB, however DIB has proven incredibly resilient, so the impacts are not nearly significant as they were in April. As far as layoffs go, DCMA continues to monitor. Small companies are impacted most. Commercial Aircraft sector continues to be most heavily impacted sector.

DPC:

• Cares Act Section 3610 Reimbursements have been extended to 36 March 2021.
• A memo will be released today on vaccine distribution. A share of the vaccine was allocated from HHS to DOD, just as it was to each state. They will provide vaccines first to those providing healthcare services, those preparing to deploy and already deployed, and those receiving occupational support (ie: if you receive flu shots from a DOD facility). Vaccine allocations are also open to contractors on a case-by-case basis.

Questions:

• There were no questions raised on the call; just farewells to Amy Murray.

About the authors

Keith Webster

Keith Webster, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Defense and Aerospace Council, guides the focus of the council to strengthen the U.S. defense and aerospace industries by influencing domestic and international policy on behalf of its members.

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