After a years long pilot, the Defense Department is establishing a permanent program that will let some trusted companies in on critical military information to help build needed systems.
“As the world sees a return to great power competition, DoD must strengthen its engagement with the defense industrial base in order to respond to the national security challenges facing the United States in a more responsive and cost efficient manner,” a Dec. 15 memo signed by Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord states.
The memo goes on to state that, increasingly, technologies and information are squirreled away in special access programs.
Those are programs that exceed regular classified information and entail highly sensitive operations and black projects.
Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/dod-reporters-notebook-jared-serbu/2021/01/dod-stands-up-permanent-program-to-give-vendors-access-to-top-tier-secrets/
Download the Dec. 15, 2020 DoD memo on the subject of “Special Access Program Contractor Portfolio Program Establishment” at: https://fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/sap-contractor.pdf