Identifying an urgent operational need is only valuable if Middle Tier of Acquisition (MTA) programs can quickly convert it into rapid prototyping, rapid fielding, and timely contract execution.

This session focuses on how MTA authorities, including Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Fielding, can be operationalized through data-driven automation to compress timelines from requirement validation to contract award and fielded capability.

The Air Force must be able to deliver battlespace networks, tactical data links, software, and mission capabilities faster than our adversaries can adapt. But compressed schedules alone don’t eliminate the toil required to identify suppliers, assess risk, develop acquisition documentation, and coordinate requirements across Air Force, Space Force, and Joint stakeholders.

In this session we’ll examine how the program managers, contracting officers, and requirements owners can enable the MTA process by applying data-driven automation and intelligent assistance to acquisition planning and development. The goal is to empower the DAF with faster access to the information needed and creation of solicitations to make defensible decisions.

 The session highlights how Air Force, Space Force, and Joint stakeholders align operational requirements, acquisition strategies, and contracting actions to deliver interoperable capability across service components.

The greatest benefit for lean program offices here is capacity. Automating repetitive research, document preparation, supplier analysis, and evidence collection allows acquisition professionals to spend more of their time negotiating balancing trade-offs and engaging industry.

Participants Learn How to:

• Translate urgent operational needs into executable MTA strategies that move programs from validated requirement to prototype, contract action, and fielding faster.

• Rapidly discover, qualify, and assess suppliers using commercial, government, and defense data.

• Automate acquisition research and documentation, including market research reports, acquisition plans, RFIs, solicitations, evaluation materials, and supporting evidence.
• Continuously adapt requirements, sourcing strategies, and risk assessments as mission feedback, interfaces, performance thresholds, and production needs to evolve.