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Small Business News

Small Business News

News | June 21, 2024

OSBP Director Participates in Supply Chain Summit

By Suzanne Zurn Office of Small Business Programs

Arlington, VA  –  

Mr. Farooq Mitha, Director, DoD Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP), spoke at the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) Supply Chain Summit on June 13 in Arlington, Va. This annual event convenes a large audience of supply chain leaders from prime companies, as well as business leaders from small, medium, and large AIA member companies. Director Mitha spoke about the Department's small business initiatives that are supporting a more resilient Defense Industrial Base (DIB) and implementation of the DoD Small Business Strategy and National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS). He also shared a few OSBP success stories including making the DoD Mentor-Protégé Program permanent, and the new "Rule of 2 Policy" which requires agencies to reserve contracts for small businesses whenever a reasonable expectation exists that at least two responsible small businesses are available to submit proposals, with reasonable prices, worthy of the agency’s time in evaluating.

Mr. Farooq Mitha, Director of the DoD Office of Small Business Programs, highlighted OSBP success stories with Anne Shybunko-Moore, CEO of GSE Dynamics and Chair of the Manufacturing Consortium of Long Island.

DoD Small Business News

OSBP and NIST Partner for Small Businesses

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP), the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense on small business matters, and  U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program (MEP) signed a memorandum of agreement on May 02, 2021 to collaborate on strengthening the national security of the small business industrial base.

The new partnership links two DOD organizations with a common mission to assist small businesses and  to achieve shared objectives:

  • Provide training and technical support to small-and-medium U.S. manufacturers engaged or planning to engage with the defense sector.
  • Promote and co-sponsor joint training events beneficial to national security, with an emphasis on cybersecurity for defense manufacturing.
  • Establish direct and consistent relationships at multiple organizational levels within both Parties to document and share complementary assistance best practices.  
  • Develop clear objectives, benchmarks and goals to measure success, added value, and synergy of collaborations between NIST MEP and OUSD(A&S) OSBP.

The OSBP and NIST partnership enables more DOD collaboration and support of small and medium manufacturers (SMMs). They will Collaborate to support the ongoing development and security of the Defense and Industrial Base.

This partnership will combine OSBP’s expertise in leveraging small businesses to close capability gaps for our armed forces with the MEP National Network.  The MEP operational base provides an opportunity for OUSD(A&S) OSBP to serve as a resource for the MEP Program of MEP Centers engages defense sector and defense-relevant manufacturing clients to promote and provide technologies, prototypes and products for National Security missions.