Companies Pitch Off-the-Shelf Tech Platforms to DoD SCO Chief Will Roper

The National Defense Industrial Association hosted a meeting on Nov. 14 to allow representatives from companies to present their commercial off-the-shelf technology platforms to Will Roper, director of the Defense Department’s strategic capabilities office, the National Defense magazine reported Monday.

Sandra I. Erwin writes executives from Allegheny Technologies, Battelle, Creative Micro Systems, Endeavor Robotics, General Atomics, Hydronalix, Inertial Labs, Leidos, Liquid Robotics and Textron Systems participated in the event.

Ellen Lord, president and CEO of Textron Systems and vice chair of the NDIA board of directors, said Roper showed interest in the “technology readiness levels” of the contractors’ products and concepts.

She added that SCO requires an “inventory of what’s out there, and what can be done with a modest investment to give you capability.”

Erwin reports that six of the 26 projects managed by SCO, which works to identify existing technologies that can be redesigned to perform new functions for the military, have transitioned to new service programs.

“SCO is a relatively small organization, and we don’t want it to become a DARPA,” Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said.

SCO functions like “skunk works, that’s really fast that does demonstrations fast,” Work added.