ABMS buy will be non-traditional

The Air Force’s live-fire Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) experiment, set for April 8, will take more risks than its December exercise in order to find more flaws to fix, according to AF acquisition chief Will Roper. The April experiment will involve physically shooting down an unmanned aircraft and a cruise missile using ships, submarines, ground troops, aircraft, and satellites. “The only failure” in the previous experiment was that “we had way too many successes,” Roper stated Feb. 21. In the next exercise he wants “an equal measure of things that fail for things that succeed.” The 80-90 percent success in December meant that the AF didn’t learn enough from it, he said. The point of this future buy is to inject continual learning, Roper asserted. It must be conducted differently than any previous major weapon system acquisition because “if we run this as a major defense acquisition program, we’re already doomed to fail.” Technology is progressing too rapidly for the AF to approach this program with anything less than breakneck speed, he said. It will be “really cool” for ABMS “when we start going from demonstrating to competition and source selection,” Roper asserted, because the competition will in no way be traditional. “(W)e will actually force vendors that are competing to make significant changes” between four-month cycles, compelling them to demonstrate flexible updating. This approach changes source selection because it “puts a big spotlight incentive on upgradeability and adaptability, he said. Participating locations will include Eglin AFB, Fla., Nellis AFB, Nev., Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., and the Army’s White Sands (NM) Missile Range, among other locations. (Source: AF Magazine 02/21/20) https://www.airforcemag.com/roper-aims-for-50-percent-failure-in-next-abms-experiment/