COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE PATHFINDERS: OVERVIEW
Established by the Deputy Secretary of Defense in February 2022, the Competitive Advantage Pathfinders (CAPs) initiative aims to demonstrate challenges and solutions to barriers in capability fielding by illuminating disconnects among the legs of the "3-Legged Stool."
To date, two CAPs “sprints” are underway consisting of 13 total pathfinders. In its first year, Sprint I (including six pathfinders) has demonstrated a number of early successes in both accelerating capability delivery and identifying scalable reforms.
Sprint II (containing seven pathfinders) is already stimulating discussion on known and anticipated challenges for rapid capability delivery. At this phase, emphasis is being placed on institutionalizing the identified reforms to ensure pathfinder successes endure and scale to the broader Department of Defense.
CAPs will:
- Accelerate and deliver producible and sustainable capability to the warfighter
- Identify examples of challenges in current “3-Legged Stool” system
- Inform future reforms across the defense ecosystem
The Department of Defense is teaming up with Defense Acquisition University (DAU) to develop educational resources and courses that increase awareness and utilization of the many tools and approaches that CAPs have illuminated.
Candidate Selection Criteria
How are programs chosen to be CAPs?
Click here for a PDF version of the infographic.
Success Stories
Pegasus - Soaring from Ships to the Air
The Navy and Air Force are developing a cross-service capability for the ship-based electronic attack module, called Medusa, for use in helicopters and aircraft to provide vital situational awareness and electronic attack functions to degrade/deny adversary anti-access/area denial capabilities.
The new capability, aptly called Pegasus, modularizes the ship-based system into a capability suitable for aviation platforms. When deployed, Pegasus will significantly reduce risk to ship and aircraft during critical missions such as Air Anti-Submarine Warfare, Mine Warfare, Combat Search and Rescue, Expeditionary troop movement, Strike, Offensive, Counter Air, Defensive Counter Air, and Anti Surface Warfare.
CAPs enabled the Air Force to go from identifying operational need to developing a capability solution available for procurement within 18 months – a process that could take 7 to 10 years if the Department decided to develop a new capability. Additionally, this pathfinder has shown that the wide array of DoD platforms with this antenna configuration can benefit from this capability.
From Ship to Shore - A Cross-Service Electronic Warfare Study
Cross-service use of technologies shortens the development cycle and takes advantage of existing investments. When the Army started investigating improved Electronic Warfare (EW) technologies, they were able to skip the design/development stage by leveraging a pre-existing Navy EW capability.
The CAPS approach proved that, from ship to shore, Navy EW technology was successfully demonstrated in Army scenarios with minimal hardware/software/firmware changes. Leaving the gray exterior behind and sporting a fresh coat of tan paint, modularity of the shipboard components enabled their nearly direct use on Army vehicles - providing the ability to deny/degrade adversary sensors for both Navy and Army missions from the same set of equipment.
Long-Range Anti-Shpi Missile (LRASM) Generation Skip
The Navy’s Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) was prevented from taking advantage of a new technology due to rigid funding and an inability to reprioritize acquisition strategies. The CAP identified opportunities for:
- Acquisition agility allowed Navy to transition technology and adapt the acquisition strategy that accelerated release of warfighting improvement that enhanced survivability, increased range, and land strike capability.
- Portfolio management achieved design and test efficiencies by merging future capability into a single configuration.
- Rapid Above Threshold Reprogramming /moving funds enabled reprioritized acquisition strategies based on evolving warfighting needs.
This effort resulted in the two-year acceleration of 444 advanced LRASMs.
CAPs: Sharpening Our Technological Edge
"U.S. competitors increasingly hold at risk our defense ecosystem [. . .] The United States' technological edge has long been a foundation of our military advantage."
2022 National Defense Strategy
Source: Link to Full Document