speed to market the time that it takes to commercialize a new technology and get it into widespread use
SCRA developed informationsharing software that allows multiple agencies to collaborate on security issues. The system is in use at the Puget Sound Interagency Operations Center (IOC) and Canada-Pacific region. SCRA participated in demonstrations and supported the deployment to seven more Interagency Operations Centers. Time and cost savings can be realized by locating and using existing tooling to produce DoD parts. An SCRA-led project has directed 5,600 purchases valued at over $80 million, matched to existing casting tooling to 92 companies. Estimates indicate over $2 million in savings on confirmed awards. The average production time re-
duction is 12 weeks and the average cost reduction is 12 percent. New welding procedures improve the corrosion performance of welds in cast stainless steels by 80 percent, reducing failures in deployed weapons systems. An automated inspection tool for fiber optic cable installation reduces rework, removes human subjectivity and increases process quality by 10 percent. The technology was used to inspect over 1,800 fiber connections during overhaul of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. An SCRA-led team conducted tests proving that the quality of final coatings could be maintained without removing pre-
construction primer. As a result, the Navy modified coating procedures to save $7 million per year. A new tandem torch design for steel welding generated a 50 percent reduction in material deformation and a two- to threefold increase in welding speed. A method of constructing large composite structures using pultrusion reduced construction labor by 60-80 percent. Over five years, technologies from SCRA’s Naval shipbuilding research have reduced the cost of US Navy ship construction by more than $285 million - a more than 5-to-1 return on the Navy’s $54 million investment.
Speed is critical in an Army-led technology program designed to maintain US ordnance superiority.
SCRA helped dramatically accelerate the speed from prototype selection to contracted research from 87 days to 30 days.