Department of Defense Issues Solicitation for Supply Chain Management Software

The Department of Defense is seeking commercially available software that can address supply chain disruptions.

According to a solicitation from the Defense Innovation Unit, the offering should be able to create alternate pathways for critical supplies, identify and manage risks within the supply chain and manage risks in a scaleable manner. The software should also feature analytic techniques that allow DOD users to ingest commercially available, publicly available, proprietary and government-furnished data to populate computational representations of supply chains.

The deadline for responses is Sept. 16, C4ISRNET reported.

The software must also allow users to search for or create computational representations of supply chains for specific use-cases, flag risks within the computational representation, create models and simulations within a specific value chain and identify important nodes across supply chain representations.

The Pentagon wants the software to enable automated data fusion, pre-built risk models and configurable and user-defined visualizations, among others.

The DIU said in its solicitation that threats to the defense industrial base are evolving. Reliance on foreign-owned products and services could also negatively impact availability, the trustworthiness of systems and other related matters.

The models created by the software would allow the DOD to make cost estimations, digital representations and risk identification and mitigation solutions.

The Pentagon is ramping up efforts to protect the supply chain from disruptions. Bill La Plante, the undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and sustainment, said during a Defense News event on Sept. 7 that he is working on new guidance to help alleviate some of the impacts that COVID-19 and inflation have had on supply chains.

The U.S. Congress has also introduced the CHIPS Act to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign sources for semiconductor technology.