The Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and the Army Contracting Command have issued an Other Transaction Authority (OTA) Agreement to the Indiana Innovation Institute (IN3) to streamline procurement and delivery of AI capabilities for the Department of Defense (DoD).
IN3, a nonprofit organization that works with academia, industry, and government to help solve critical defense priorities, will help JAIC set up and manage a prototype business process called Tradewind.
In a statement earlier this month, JAIC said it will use Tradewind to “build a collaborative ecosystem partnering with commercial, academic, and industry partners that will work with the DoD to develop, design, and implement AI capabilities.” A primary goal of Tradewind is to foster transparency between the DoD, academia, and industry. JAIC said that this will help foster a “whole-of-nation” approach to support the DoD’s AI innovations.
“Tradewind will provide a user-friendly framework for our private sector partners to work more efficiently with the DoD to scale and implement AI for the warfighter and consumers across the military,” said William Roberts, JAIC Chief of Acquisition. “We want to learn from this initiative to improve the way DoD works with all types of private sector and academic partners, and inject the much needed speed and agility necessary to scale artificial intelligence and transform the department.”
The portal will begin with online capabilities that connect with small and non-traditional companies, create rapid contract actions, and help DoD offices to integrate end-users through agile delivery. JAIC said it anticipates adding additional tools, features, and information in the coming months.
