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(OAI, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.) has announced that it is the recipient of a $49,075,000 award from the U.S. Air Force (USAF, Washington, D.C., U.S.) to be used for managing a consortium of industry and academia members that will collaboratively ignite an enterprise-wide digital transformation of the Department of the Air Force’s processes. 

The six-year agreement seeks to establish and operate a consortium that facilitates USAF’s commitment to the transformation of digital practices across its acquisition, operations and sustainment enterprises. Called “DRIVE”— Digital Research, Innovation, Validation & Experimentation — the consortium will be executed by OAI in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, U.S.), establishing an ecosystem for mitigating transformation risks in U.S. Air Force programs and activities.

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The consortium will focus on fostering collaboration between USAF organizations, OEMs, technology providers, academia and other government agencies, managing the development and demonstration of processes, tools and architectures supporting transformed acquisition and sustainment, and identifying critical business, policy and cultural constraints. 

OAI is a private, not-for-profit 501(c)3 Ohio-based corporation, founded in 1989, with financial support from the Ohio state government. It is reported to be the first NASA/Department of Defense (DOD) associated collaborative institute chartered to foster relationships between universities, aerospace industries and government organizations. OAI maintains strong partnerships with U.S. government laboratories, the state of Ohio, Ohio research universities and the aerospace industry, and it has a lengthy history of building and managing collaborations, consortia, and public-private partnerships. 

“The Ohio Aerospace Institute excels in bringing together industry, government and academia to solve tough problems, and we are excited to bring our expertise to assist in the digital transformation of the U.S. Air Force,” OAI president and CEO, Dr. John M. Sankovic, notes.

Over its 33 years of existence, OAI has developed and managed numerous consortia comprised of world-leading industry and academic partners to support strategic efforts such as this for the DOD, NASA, Department of Commerce and private industry.

The AFRL’s Manufacturing and Industrial Technologies Division has a 70-year history of driving substantial changes into the AF industrial base, including CAM, lean production and digital thread. The division has long-standing technical and programmatic leadership roles in most of the network of Manufacturing USA innovation institutes.