Don't like DARPA!? Join 'em!

Just thought I'd post this. Let me know if it needs moved.

Here's the link

Makes one speculate in what direction they're taking the program with events like that. Maybe lack in funding? Idk.

reply to post by sefhinny


They just want to get a bunch of smart people together, hear their ideas, and then steal them

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


No. They buy them. With contracts and stuff.
For example
insidehpc.com...

Interesting the quotes the editor chose. "Innovative risk takers" and talking about a ,"holistic overhaul" of dismounted infantry. Tells me 1 of 2 things. A. Everyone there realized the same thing I did years ago, the Boston Dynamics "Horse" is garbage. B. Spies show Chinese cyborgs. You be the judge

This is sort of like an RFQ fair, I suppose.

In truth, though, DARPA does all its work through bids on projects, and they publish the bid specs every quarter. If you wanted 'to work for DARPA' from a project standpoint, you just bid on one.

If you want to work for DARPA from an agency standpoint, it's also pretty straightforward.

You guys seriously don't know how this works?

ETA: Anyone want a thread on how to bid a project to DARPA, the process in some detail, what they're looking for now, what the various steps are in going from a winning phase I bid to production and so forth? I'm getting the idea that ATS folks don't know how this works.

reply to post by OptimusSubprime


No, that's Naval Weapons. I've had them snag at least two of ours.

Originally posted by Bedlam
This is sort of like an RFQ fair, I suppose.

In truth, though, DARPA does all its work through bids on projects, and they publish the bid specs every quarter. If you wanted 'to work for DARPA' from a project standpoint, you just bid on one.

If you want to work for DARPA from an agency standpoint, it's also pretty straightforward.

You guys seriously don't know how this works?

ETA: Anyone want a thread on how to bid a project to DARPA, the process in some detail, what they're looking for now, what the various steps are in going from a winning phase I bid to production and so forth? I'm getting the idea that ATS folks don't know how this works.

edit on 26-3-2013 by Bedlam because: (no reason given)

I don't understand how it works. I get the idea, but as with anything, if you personally work with it you probably have insights others wouldn't. Do you work in purchasing or in a department that writes contracts for the government? Or possibly a contractor that deals with the government? Or have you researched the process a lot? Please elaborate.

Just to play devil's advocate, how do you know DARPA doesn't get non patented tech's presented to them and turn around and swipe them?

I turned down a job for a company called "Cherokee Inc". Long story short; my grandparents neighbor works for the gov't doing contracting. She gave me a great reference for Cherokee, a large subcontractor of them. I turned down the job because I finally found an opening with the company I'm at now, relevant to my degree.



Anyways, I wasn't questioning,"How it works". I posted the above link to see what people had to say about it.

I'm pretty new here, and I'm young in general. I love hearing everyone's different standpoints. Any insight you have on government contracting can only help one in his/her endeavor to understand the nation today. Feel free to post in this thread, or start your own new completely.


Sefhinny

Originally posted by sefhinny

I don't understand how it works. I get the idea, but as with anything, if you personally work with it you probably have insights others wouldn't. Do you work in purchasing or in a department that writes contracts for the government? Or possibly a contractor that deals with the government? Or have you researched the process a lot? Please elaborate.

A few guys including meself left LANL years ago, and started a company, we added in a few other of our ex-service friends and have a little company, once in Huntsville, now in Pensacola, that does contract work. We do some commercial stuff, some non-class military, and we've got a SCIF to do TS and SCI, at present I'm off campus and doing work at a customer site in California east of Tehachapi.

The process with doing jobs for DARPA is sort of like doing any other DOD contract.

DARPA doesn't actually design or produce anything itself, all the projects are bid out to contractors and managed by DARPA. DARPA comes up with the ideas, farms them out, manages the project.

Just to play devil's advocate, how do you know DARPA doesn't get non patented tech's presented to them and turn around and swipe them?

I've never heard of it, but like Naval Weapons and Sea Systems has done to us in the past, they can snag your ideas during the bid cycle I suppose.

I've never had bad dealings with other branches, just Navy. Navy's renowned for it.

It doesn't stop at the bid level, either, generally you'll see a big first tier win those, although not always, and then there's a second set of bid wars as the first tier will bid some or all of it out in pieces to second tiers, which is where we often are, second tiering to SAIC, LM, NG and Boeing. Plus a few others. We have done first tier work. It's not bad to get phase I and II and then farm out the rest for phase III.

As far as the Navy goes, we have had projects where we got the RFQ, saw the wide range of possibilities they'd missed, bid them in our proposal, then had Navy cancel the bid and resubmit it with our ideas as the new bid, effectively stealing the thing and handing it to their buddies. Never got that with DARPA. Marines and JSOC are my favorites for doing business with, we won't do any with Navy as a first tier.

eta: it's possible to come up with something entertaining and pitch it to them off-bid, as you can with other DOD departments, in this case you may receive a no-bid SBIR contract out of SBIR funds if they have any, you also can get non-line item funding if it's hinky enough, this is a "black" project because it's out of the 'other funding' pool that isn't tracked. There are, of course, other black projects, but that's one way to do one.

eta further: you can generally get anyone from a colonel up to stroke a direct no-bid SBIR to you, so if you can sell it to a full bird, you can get at least a phase I out of the thing. We've done a number of projects under 'other funding' this way, and some offbeat SBIR stuff that was never in the proposal list.

CAN SOMEONE HELP ME UNDERSTAND WHAT DARPA ACTUALLY IS PLEASE ?? CONFUSED HERE

reply to post by Phage


our we talking about people buying the guns from other countries to attack the country there selling from here ? if so thats rife

reply to post by ufokingdom


DARPA- Defense Andvanced Research Project Agency

Youtube DARPA and you can see some scifi like robots they've funded.

Originally posted by ufokingdom
CAN SOMEONE HELP ME UNDERSTAND WHAT DARPA ACTUALLY IS PLEASE ?? CONFUSED HERE

The US has a Department of Defense research agency called DARPA.

DARPA's mission is to conduct research to further the superiority of the US military. They are a forward-looking technical research group. In the UK, a sort-of equivalent is DSTL.

DARPA has a fairly large staff that form a sort of 'think tank', they pull in the eggheads from various groups for consultants, and they come up with a feel for the way that combat tech will head 25 years from now. Then they farm out projects to test whether that can be done, what sort of problems you will encounter and the like. If it works out, they farm out further development. If not, they alter the 'future map'. DARPA's work is often/nearly always in the open in terms of the projects they field out, some are not, I'll be honest. They're not traditionally a clandestine service, though.