In This Story
Baroni Center Report No. 12
Prototyping efforts drive innovation in technology, boost manufacturing efficiency, and support workforce development
“From Breakthroughs to the Battlefield: Best Practices for Tapping into the Power of Prototyping,” co-authored by Stephanie Halcrow, a senior fellow at Costello’s Baroni Center for Government Contracting, and Dr. Arun Seraphin, Executive Director, NDIA Emerging Technologies Institute, is based on survey input from over 200 participants across small businesses, prime contractors, traditional and nontraditional defense firms, and academic institutions, as well as webinars, workshops, and one-on-one interviews.
Key findings include:
- Prototyping benefits: Defense prototyping strengthens U.S. defense systems by advancing new technologies, enhancing weapon systems, boosting manufacturing efficiency, and developing the future workforce.
- Best practices: Successful prototyping relies on collaboration, funding commitment, clear requirements, digital acquisition, open designs, and international standards.
- Pain points: Despite best practices, defense prototyping faces challenges like conflicting definitions, misaligned success criteria, unclear outcome measurement, and resource constraints.
“Prototyping programs across the defense enterprise continue to deliver significant benefits for the Department of Defense (DoD), the armed forces, and ultimately our warfighters on the battlefield,” said Dr. Seraphin. “At the same time, there is real room to improve processes and measure success to maximize the power of our prototyping efforts. Aligning DoD, Congress, and industry on success criteria and measurement is crucial for improving prototyping outcomes for warfighters.”
Recommendations for the Future of Prototyping
The report offers seven recommendations to fully unlock the power of prototyping for DoD:
- Increased collaboration between DoD, Congress, and industry to align objectives and streamline efforts.
- Standardizing the definition of prototyping with a clear path to production is essential.
- Clear success criteria should be established. The DoD should also mandate reporting and work with Congress to expand public requirements under Sec. 217 of the FY21 NDAA.
- DoD should leverage all readiness levels with Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) in policy for better program management, with Congress directing GAO to assess their use in prototyping.
- DoD should focus on alignment, ensuring acquisition leaders and stakeholders are aware of prototyping efforts and synchronize them with service priorities to meet customer needs.
- DoD and industry should develop a modern system to capture and share knowledge efficiently.
- DoD should update its Prototyping Guidebook with the best practices identified by this report.
“The power of prototyping is all around us. From the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine to cutting-edge microchips needed for U.S. defense systems, the value of prototyping is evident,” said Stephanie Halcrow. “But based on our findings, there is still untapped potential to deliver better prototyping outcomes, more consistently for the DoD. Implementing the recommendations in this report would be an excellent first step to achieving that worthwhile objective.”