AFLCMC Consortium Initiative (ACI): an explanation

  • Published
  • By Allyson B. Crawford, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Public Affairs
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) Consortium Initiative (ACI) is a powerful tool that accelerates the acquisition process. In use since 2018, ACI streamlines the pathway for prototyping and rapidly transitioning technologies to the warfighter, bypassing many of the hurdles of traditional government contracting.

ACI is an "Other Transaction" (OT) agreement, which is a more flexible contracting vehicle. OT agreements give the military access to new and emerging technologies.

"An Other Transaction is not a procurement contract, so it's not guided by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) or its supplements," explained Christian Ryan, from AFLCMC’s contracting directorate and a key figure behind the consortium initiative. "There's a significant amount of red tape that's also cut out because of it. And that's intentional. The process itself can move very fast."

ACI allows for quicker contract movement because it is largely outside most acquisition regulations, has different approval thresholds and is tailorable to custom needs.

A primary goal of the ACI is to attract new companies and small businesses to government acquisitions. The initiative targets “non-traditional” defense contractors, which is an organization that has not had a fully CAS (Cost Accounting Standards) compliant contract over the past year of eligibility. This frees the Air Force to cast a wider net when looking for innovative products and technologies. Right now, there are over 1,800 ACI industry partners. This includes smaller companies and major defense contractors like Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

"The point of this authority is that there is so much state-of-the-art technology and so many business practices out there that the government would love to get their hands on," Ryan adds. "But we also don't want to scare [the businesses] away with bureaucracy. This is a low-barrier way to reach out and get those non-traditionals."

According to Ryan, there are secondary benefits to using ACI, including the ability to go directly into sole source production after successful completion of a competed prototype. That means quicker and easier follow-on.  

The ACI is a component of the broader acquisition transformation strategy. Ryan is currently working to create a unified "digital acquisition trade space" that connects various marketplaces and technology repositories from agencies across the Department of War.