Uptick In DOD Prototype Deals A Harbinger For More Growth

Government Contracts Partner Eric Crusius was cited in a Law360 article about the expansion in the U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD) use of streamlined agreements for rapidly acquiring prototype technology. This explosive uptick in Other Transaction Authority agreements, or OTAs, is likely only the beginning of long-term growth for such deals. One factor providing room for growth is the DOD's contracting budget. The total OTA awards made by the Army between 2017 and 2019 is only a small fraction of the hundreds of billions of dollars the DOD spends on contracts each year, meaning there's plenty of monetary headroom to grow.

"It's still such a small percentage of DOD spending that I think sometimes some folks within DOD are still wary of using a tool like this, because sometimes creativity is not fully recognized and sometimes punished," said Mr. Crusius. But as contracting officers see more and more successful examples of the use of OTAs, they may be encouraged to experiment with the prototyping model.

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