PSF (Public Spend Forum)

Understanding AFRL's major reorganization requires understanding the seven mission organizations that now constitute it. Over the next few weeks, we plan to delve into each of these directorates to help you better understand how they are aiding AFRL in accelerating the discovery, development and delivery of high-impact technologies. And what better place to start than where novel ideas and new discoveries converge: the Foundational Technologies Directorate. This "foundational" approach takes a holistic look at the scientific knowledge and breakthroughs that underpin AFRL technologies to champion basic research and pervasive scientific advancement. This approach aligns elements of our 711th Human Performance Wing, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), and the former Materials and Manufacturing Directorate. Click through our link in the comments to learn more of what's to come. #AFResearchLab | #AirForce | #SpaceForce | #AFRLRedesign | #FoundationalResearch | #BasicResearch

🗞️ H.R. 2804 ("Rule of Two") moving out of the House Small Business Committee unanimously is a real signal. Not a final victory. But a real signal. It changes how you plan, how you protect pipeline, how you respond to RFIs, and how aggressively you push back when work that should be set aside starts drifting into unrestricted channels. The practical impact is this: 💡 If the Rule of Two is codified in statute, small business access becomes harder to weaken through FAR rewrites, policy shifts, or agency-level interpretation, giving small businesses a more durable footing when they argue that an opportunity should be or remain set aside. 💡 More work is flowing through large IDIQs, GWACs, MACs, schedules, and task-order environments. The small business fight is no longer just about open-market set-asides. It is about whether agencies apply meaningful small business discipline inside the vehicles where the work actually lives. The House Committee version appears to narrow the bill by excluding task and delivery orders. The Senate version reportedly keeps them in scope. That difference goes directly to where many small businesses now compete every day. 🌟 RECOMMENDATION: SB's should consider four behavioral changes: 1. Treat RFIs and sources sought notices as strategic events, not administrative chores. If two or more capable small businesses exist, the record must show that. Up your RFI response game starting now! 2. Build a stronger internal record of capability, past performance, and fair-market-price support so you can make the set-aside argument credibly. 3. Watch task-order acquisition strategy more closely. The vehicle-level award is only half the game. The ordering rules determine whether you actually get access to the work. 4. Stay engaged through industry associations, congressional outreach, and agency feedback channels. Committee passage is momentum, not enactment. Codification into federal law would not magically create opportunities. But it will strengthen the legal foundation that small businesses rely on when agencies decide whether work belongs in the small-business lane. #govcon #idiq #gwac #smallbusiness #cfr #federallaw #businessdevelopment

Scaling the drones supply chain is a U.S. defense and broadly, global imperative.  Who wins the race will depend heavily on the depth at which they understand the supply chain and underlying issues/constraints/ bottlenecks that inhibit scaling. HIGHEST RISK/CONSTRAINTS IN SUPPLY CHAIN - Based on PSF (Public Spend Forum)'s ongoing coverage and deep dive analysis of the drones market and supply chains, some common themes emerge: ***Batteries & Energy (High risk): supplier concentration and chemistry constraints are creating hard ceilings on scale ***Propulsion (High risk): motors, magnet supply and precision manufacturing capacity remain dangerously thin ***Power Electronics (High-Medium risk): semiconductor access and PCB constraints haven't been solved by commercial markets *** Energetics/Payload (High-Medium risk): export controls and specialty material sourcing are active blockers today 6 COMMON FAILTURE PATTERNS that we have altered our community to proactively plan for: 1) Single-Source Control: concentrated suppliers hold leverage over your entire program - we have worked quite a bit on this issue especially with client such as Defense Logistics Agency and the Drone Dominance program 2) Long-Lead / Capacity-Constrained Inputs: extended lead times are already throttling throughput, especially as suppliers see demand from all sides; becoming a "customer of choice" will become important 3) Export Controls & Regulatory Friction: ITAR/EAR isn't just about compliance. It impacts velocity as well. Quickly adjudicating workarounds or exceptions is critical to leverage full capabilities of allied nations. 4) Technology & IP Vulnerabilities: hidden firmware and toolchain dependencies create systemic risk; knowing source down to multiple tiers of the supply chain is critical 5) Quality & Reliability Variability: inconsistent quality will drive on-the-ground failures and unfortunately risk lives 6) Integration & Interoperability Gaps: subsystem mismatches will limit how fast you can actually build; creating common standards becomes even more important Good news is that many of these issues and constraints are known. Not so clear and early stage are the strategies being put in place. WAITLIST - Sign up for the PSF MI Ecosystem WAITLIST to get access to our market briefs and content: https://lnkd.in/e348Y36q #Drones #UAS #OWA #DroneDominance #SupplyChain #DefenseIndustrialBase #MarketIntelligence #DefenseProcurement #EmergingTech #PSF Brooke Pyne Brian Retherford Kevin Landtroop Fatema Hamdani Alejandra Y Castillo Matt MacGregor Trish Martinelli, PMP® G. Nagesh R. Roger Pecina Colin Guinn Jared Kaib Mike C.

If you are looking to source semiconductors for your various defense and related use cases, it's important to understand not just who is out there but where the manufacturing capabilities lie. As part of our continuous market coverage of defense focused semiconducstors industry, here are a few insights on the fabrication infrastructure: 🔵 California remains the largest cluster of semiconductor activity, a dense mix of commercial fabs, advanced R&D, and university labs. Silicon Valley continues to create outsized opportunities for prototyping, early fabrication, and industry collaboration. 🔵 Arizona has rapidly expanded its manufacturing base, backed by major investments in fabrication capacity, strong infrastructure, and a skilled workforce, becoming a cornerstone of supply chain resilience. 🔵 Texas is a core manufacturing hub with long-standing strengths in wafer fabrication, packaging, and testing, and emerging investments are positioning it for advanced packaging leadership. 🔵 New York hosts a growing network of fabrication, R&D, and pilot-scale facilities, driven by strong academic institutions and significant state and federal investment. 🔵 Massachusetts contributes heavily to semiconductor R&D, with university-led labs focused on photonics, quantum technologies, and device prototyping. The industrial base is more distributed than most assume, but concentration risks remain real. You can access this data, insights and other semiconductor market/supply chain on PSF's Market Intelligence Ecosystem --> https://lnkd.in/eAB-d2CY #Semiconductors #SemiconductorFabs #SupplyChain #DefenseIndustrialBase #ManufacturingUSA #MarketIntelligence #ChipAct #Photonics #QuantumTech #PSF Brett Hamilton Alejandra Y Castillo Dev Shenoy Aaron "Ronnie" Chatterji Jesse Gipe Brooke Pyne