The armed services will always have military unique computing and communication requirements however this does not preclude them from gaining substantial benefit from commercial industry’s R&D spending; technological advances; price/performance; short development to market time frames and gap closure that can be achieved between military unique requirements and commercial industry’s technology trends. 

To recognize and apply these benefits, it takes more than current knowledge of the technology and its functionality, but also knowledge of the commercial market for and in which these technologies compete; the locus of innovation; its vendors, their core competencies, their financial and market strength, long term stability as well as ownership, U.S. or foreign.

These commercial activities are important and relevant to the technology selection for systems development.  These vendors represent deep expertise and experience in specific technology areas and are the suppliers of the some of the fundamental technologies that will support and enable the services to bring capabilities to the warfighter today and in the future.

The economic forces working in the market have multiple effects on determining affordability, feasibility and time frames for development, as well a the cost of maintenance and modernization.  These economic forces drive down the cost of technology; accelerate technology development and its innovation. They can also impact technology standards, market deployment, and competition which puts pressure on the supplier to lower the cost of goods sold, accelerate innovation and development or they can lead to supplier consolidation or the refocusing of their development efforts. 

All of these forces can be used to the services advantage to bring a set of minimal essential of capabilities to the warfighter sooner, achieve efficiencies in cost, schedule and performance, where possible better align requirements with technology availability and move toward the realization of it’s Functional Concept. 

CommerceBasix through its affiliates brings a team of Subject Matter Experts who have currency of information, deep competencies and experience in specific areas of technology, its functionality, and its feasibility.

CommerceBasix technology assessments and recommendations are not stove piped but integrated into the final deliverable. The risks and issues with each technology, its development path, the military specific gaps, and its costs are identified and discussed. This analysis provides the rigor, standardized metrics and context for the evaluation of capabilities in terms of feasibility, affordability and life cycle management.  It can also be applied to the evaluation of rapidly fielded technology that is currently deployed in the battlefield.

The integration of this information provides a complete picture of the technology, which enables the services to make decisions that encompass not only the feasibility and affordability of development, but life cycle management as well.