Innovations & technologies

SOCOM Looking For Technology From Foreign Firms

U.S. Special Operations Command is looking overseas for technology solutions, a top acquisition official said May 24.

“We look for the best product wherever it is around the world,” said James Geurts, SOCOM’s acquisition executive, at the 2016 Special Operations Forces Industry Conference.

The meeting, hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association, brought together more than 11,000 members of the industry and the special operations community from the United States and other countries.

SOCOM has a number of different tools that it can use to buy equipment such as the forward area test program and the coalition partner program, Geurts noted.

“We are a global [acquisitions, technology and logistics] network,” he said. “If you’re an international partner or an international industry partner and you’ve got a piece of kit, our goal is to get that into our system, test it, and if we like it, immediately go to procurement of that equipment.”