WASHINGTON — The Army released a request for information for a new iteration of its second-generation, vehicle-mounted position, navigation and timing (PNT) system, but this go around the service is adding a fairly rare stipulation: the prime contractor would have to hand over its intellectual property for the system.
“The [g]overnment lacks the rights to the detailed drawing package, technical documentation, and software source code sufficient enough to provide a ‘Build to Print’ package to a third party for production,” the solicitation posted Wednesday read.
So, under the section titled “Intellectual Property” of the RFI, the Army’s Capability Program Executive for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors is asking interested vendors to “provide details on the specific technical documentation, including design specifications, system architecture diagrams, and maintenance manuals that will be required as part of the data package for this contract.”
The second-generation Mounted Assured PNT System (MAPS Gen II) program is currently under contract with RTX subsidiary Collins Aerospace. The system is designed to provide PNT data for ground vehicles, particularly in GPS denied environments. Collins won the contract in 2022 for the system, and in September the service began fielding it after it was approved for full-rate production in March.
The service’s contract with Collins is scheduled to run through the end of September 2027, so now the Army is on the prowl for vendors who will fork over their intellectual property. The provision comes after service leaders such as Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and head of the Army’s Material Command Lt. Gen. Christopher Mohan have advocated that the service do more to acquire intellectual property from vendors and not give up their right to repair equipment and weapons systems.
In an October interview with Breaking Defense, Mohan explained that since the Army does not own the IP for many of the parts that go into its weapons and platforms, this makes it difficult to easily or affordably reverse engineer and 3D print such parts when they need replacing.
“I acknowledge that their intellectual property is their intellectual property,” Mohan said. “It is a shame on us for not buying it up front, which is foolish, a fool’s errand.”
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Further, as Breaking Defense reported, right to repair provisions put forward in both the House and Senate bills were ultimately stripped from the final version. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told reporters Thursday that was “one of the things … I’m unhappy about,” adding that he didn’t know why the language was removed.
Though it is not yet clear how industry will react to such an ask from the Army, the service is planning to move full steam ahead with its MAPS Gen II ask, writing in the solicitation that it will want 150 systems per month “with a surge capacity of 300 per month within 12 months of award.” Responses to the RFI are due Jan. 19.