SOF community puts novel acquisition strategy to the test during Accelerator challenge

The Defense Department’s special operations policy shop has launched a new acquisition event designed to collapse the multi-year procurement process for emerging capabilities into a single day.

The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC) hosted its inaugural Accelerator event on Friday, bringing together industry and government officials to rapidly evaluate and potentially fund commercial technologies. Unlike standard industry days, companies invited to the event have the chance to immediately receive seed funding from the department the same day — opening doors for further development, prototyping and fielding.

“Rather than just admiring the problem, this is a gated approach about beginning with smart, small bets rather than betting big right off the bat,” Derrick Anderson, the Pentagon’s SO/LIC boss, told attendees during his keynote at the event.

DOD procurement is a notoriously bureaucratic process that can take years, favors incumbent vendors and sometimes results in fielding outdated technology. The Pentagon has tried to expedite acquisitions with events like reverse industry days and prize challenges, but oftentimes vendors do not receive funding or further commitment from the department for months — if at all.

That’s why the SO/LIC office decided to invite officials from Army Contracting Command-Rock Island, according to Cara Teeter, deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations analysis, resources and capabilities.

“What typically doesn’t happen in these events is … proximity to our senior decision makers who are not risk averse, who are willing to lean in, who are willing to say ‘yes’ and have the capital to jumpstart that and begin to move the ball forward,” Teeter said.

The event was yet another response to ongoing acquisition reforms across the Pentagon. Since taking office, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has called on the entire department to pivot away from traditional procurement timelines and instead prioritize rapidly fielding new capabilities that can be tested and refined directly on the battlefield.

The Accelerator initiative focused on nine operational challenges identified by SO/LIC’s Counternarcotics and Stabilization Policy directorate and Special Operations Command Central — ranging from resilient communications to sensor payloads for unmanned systems.

After receiving over 700 submissions, the office ultimately invited 15 commercial companies to Arlington, Virginia, to present their mature technologies in front of operators and senior leaders from U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. Central Command and other organizations.

Anderson emphasized that when going through submissions, SO/LIC was not interested in nebulous ideas that would take years to develop. Rather, the capabilities presented were tangible, operational systems that could be fielded to warfighters within six months. 

“Rather than building a Cadillac from scratch for us, we want to take what you have now, make a quick modification, and inject it into the geographic combatant commands or into the services to test immediately,” he said. “I want to actually see the thing, touch the thing, see the technical capabilities you have to offer and ultimately hand it to our service members to give them the opportunity to stress test … and enable us to iterate.”

At the end of the day, companies have the opportunity to receive a $50,000 award — seed funding so that they can immediately begin prototyping and validating their systems with operators, rather than serve as full production contracts. Vendors selected will also have the chance to compete for larger follow-on awards in the future. 

“The piece of paper that the companies receive, if they are selected today as winning this challenge, they can invoice against that tomorrow,” Teeter told reporters on the sidelines of Accelerator. “It is not a dressed up, fake check. This is the contracting folks on site creating the actual legal document right there.”

While SO/LIC only just started with Accelerator, Anderson indicated that he wants his office to continue hosting them in the future. He told reporters that since the SOF community has historically served as emerging technology pathfinders for the entire Defense Department, the event’s format could serve as a roadmap for the entire Pentagon.

“This is the beginning of an enduring, rapid on-ramp into the defense innovation ecosystem,” Anderson said. “If we can prove today that we can rapidly resource, integrate and scale technologies to solve these nine operational challenge areas, we are establishing a new blueprint that the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps can readily adopt.”