The United States government provides resources and tools to aid small businesses who are starting the defense contractor process or are actively defense contractors.
APEX Accelerators
The APEX Accelerators, formerly known as the Procurement Technical Assistance Program (PTAP), was authorized by Congress in 1985 to expand the number of businesses capable of participating in government contracts. Today, the APEX Accelerators program focuses on building strong, sustainable and resilient U.S. supply chains by assisting a wide range of businesses that pursue and perform under contracts with the DoD, other federal agencies, state and local governments, and with government prime contractors.
Defense Innovation Unit (DIU)
The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) strengthens national security by accelerating the adoption of commercial technology throughout the military and bolstering our allied and national security innovation bases. DIU partners with organizations across the Department of Defense (DoD) to rapidly prototype and field dual-use capabilities that solve operational challenges at speed and scale. DIU is the only DoD organization focused exclusively on fielding and scaling commercial technology across the U.S. military at commercial speeds. DIU’s process delivers prototypes to our DoD partners, along with scalable revenue opportunities for our commercial vendors, within 12 to 24 months. Upon completion, successful prototypes may transition to follow-on production-Other Transaction agreements or Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)-based contracts.
DoD Manufacturing Technology (ManTech)
DoD ManTech Program was originally created to further national security objectives through the development and application of advanced manufacturing technologies and processes. The enterprise attempts to utilize advanced manufacturing to secure a more lethal force, strengthen alliances and new partnerships, and reform the Department for greater performance and affordability. The mission of the program is to reduce the acquisition and supportability costs of defense weapon systems and reduce manufacturing and repair cycle times across the lifecycles of such systems.
GSA Contracts Search
The Acquisition Solutions Navigator allows you to compare General Services Administration (GSA) contract vehicles and search contract award information. Conduct market research for your procurements by using these tools to explore GSA resources.
SpaceWERX
SpaceWERX inspires and empowers collaboration with innovators to accelerate capabilities and shape our future in space. Major technology trends that affect our national security continue to emerge from private industry, academia, and the government. The U.S. Space Force’s competitive advantage is our ability to identify, validate, acquire, and integrate those technologies quickly. Accordingly, SpaceWERX seeks to form collaborative partnerships between the military’s operational experts and the top problem solvers in industry, academia, and the government.
U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)
Make sure you meet your SBA size standard. Learn about the definition of – and qualifications for – a small business and why it’s important to know your status.