The Pentagon has announced a new reverse-engineering initiative to prolong the use of obsolete defense technologies.
The program entails an investment of close to $1.8 million that, over a two-year period, will focus on technologies with potentially vital roles in defense systems that currently are missing technical data packages.
The Department of War (DOW) said the investment was initially awarded last August, but that delays resulting from the government shutdown postponed the announcement. The investment, according to a DOW announcement this week, was made in the Great Plains Innovation Network (GPIN) of Manhattan, Kansas.
Reverse-Engineering Defense-Critical Technologies
The initiative is reportedly to be funded through the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy (OASW(IBP))’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program, according to the DOD announcement.
That Office, whose mission involves efforts to collaborate “with domestic and international partners to forge and sustain a robust, secure, and resilient industrial base enabling the warfighter, now and in the future,” is headed by Michael Cadenazzi, who currently serves as Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy (ASW(IBP)).
The reverse engineering effort, according to the DOW, “will culminate with updated engineering documentation for manufacturability and low-rate initial production opportunities” that will involve “at least three prototypes of critical obsolescent assemblies.”
In a statement this week, Cadenazzi called the new initiative “an important effort,” adding that several of the Pentagon’s most vital legacy systems “are to some degree unsustainable as the original equipment manufacturers are no longer in our industrial base.”
Following the two-year investment period, Cadenazzi says the Pentagon is expected to possess “a more resilient and competitive supply chain” made possible through work between the Great Plains Innovation Network (GPIN) and its partners at Kansas State University, in addition to contributions from “others across the Midwest as they forge new partnerships.”
Leveraging Technical Data “That No Longer Exists”
A significant component of the new effort and the GPIN’s work with Kansas State University will focus on providing training for interns and what the DOW characterizes as “non-traditional defense contractors,” which may include industrial partners from areas of industry and other professions outside the normal pool the Pentagon has sought expertise in the past.
Applying such non-traditional approaches, the DOW aims to leverage obsolescent technologies by creating technical data packages—information that may include design models generated by software systems, bills of material, and other quality-related documentation. These packages are to be generated for systems of potentially vital significance to defense architecture, but for which “technical data no longer exists,” the Pentagon said this week.
If successful, the effort is expected to introduce “competitive opportunities across the defense industrial base,” accessible to a larger swath of prospective industrial partners. Primarily, this will be made possible by allowing performers to bid on contracts for existing, but outdated, systems based on known data.
Fundamentally, this ensures innovative platform development and manufacturing while reducing the need for workarounds when technical data for such systems has been lost.
“Some companies working in the [Defense Industrial Base] have gone out of business and left no technical data packages behind to support future defense manufacturing needs,” the Pentagon said in a release this week.
Rebuilding the Military Through Innovation
In addition to addressing past issues, the $1.8 million investment will help fund current DOW efforts to improve military systems and capabilities, an initiative Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has termed his “Rebuilding the Military” initiative.
Specifically, the investment will help leverage technologies within the Defense Logistics Agency’s existing catalog, which the DOW says will allow it to “target high-demand parts and assemblies that are no longer procurable to design data packages that will support future defense-critical manufacturing needs.”
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.