Best Practice in Technology Acquisition: Early Licensing of Technology before or during Prove-out Phase

Abstract

Best Practices in procurement within the defense industry include various strategic practices to assure that supplies are adequate to meet demand and support military readiness. Existing practices in procurement may often be sufficient to assure an adequate supply, but they are not sufficient to assure an adequate supply of technology-based, mass-produced goods. An example of such a technology-based, mass-produced good is body armor. A proposed best practice in technology acquisition is early licensing of technologies underlying such goods. This paper explores the advantages of using early licensing to assure that supplies of technology-based goods are adequate to meet demand.