Blog · Award strategy

Plan the Second Award Before You Win the First

Chris A. Grable · October 4, 2026

A company wins a prototype, a prize or an evaluation buy, the customer is pleased with the result, and then nothing happens. Often the work was fine. The first award was simply never set up to lead to a second one. Every route into DOW business has its own condition for a follow-on, and most of those conditions are fixed on the day the first award is made.

What each path requires for a follow-on

First award	What the follow-on depends on
Prototype other transaction (10 U.S.C. 4022)	Competitive procedures for the prototype, and successful completion by the participants. Then a production contract or transaction can follow without further competition.
Commercial solutions opening (10 U.S.C. 3458)	The initial award must be fixed-price. The follow-on is either a contract, including sole source, subject to the approvals in 10 U.S.C. 3204(e), or a production contract or transaction as 4022 defines it.
SBIR or STTR	Phase III work must derive from, extend or complete the earlier SBIR or STTR effort, and is funded outside the set-aside.
Combatant command experimentation (FY2026 NDAA section 873)	A successful experiment, prototype or demonstration and the commander's written determination to a senior contracting official that the capability meets the command's need. That determination can serve as the justification for other than competitive procedures and as the validated need statement. The authority runs through September 30, 2028.
Prize competition (10 U.S.C. 4025)	The prize can itself be a procurement contract or agreement. A cash prize needs a separate acquisition with its own authority.
Experimental purchase (10 U.S.C. 4023)	Nothing. It builds evidence but creates no follow-on entitlement.
Facility other transaction (10 U.S.C. 2808a)	The original transaction must provide for a follow-on, the participants must have been competitively selected, and they must complete a complete and usable facility or improvement.
Existing vehicle or consortium seat	A head start, not a guarantee. Membership earns the right to compete for projects.

Three decisions to make on day one

Decide what success means, in writing. A prototype follow-on rests on "successful completion," and a combatant command follow-on rests on a demonstrated result against a stated need. If the success criteria are vague, the follow-on is arguable. UDC recommends agreeing with the customer, before work starts, on what successful completion means and how it will be documented.

Confirm the selection was competitive. A fast sole-source start can close the production door that 4022(f) would otherwise open. Ask whether the prototype was competed through a solicitation, a commercial solutions opening or a consortium request, and keep the record.

Settle which appropriation pays for the follow-on, and in which year. The color of money usually changes at transition. Production of operational investment items normally needs Procurement funds, which typically have to be in the budget through the program objective memorandum well before the award, or come from reprogramming or a program such as APFIT. A follow-on authority can be used only when legally appropriate funds are available for the planned work. An RDT&E test article that survives its test program may be reassigned to operational use, but that rule does not pay for additional operational quantities.

Prove the gate before anyone asks

Almost every fast path has a gate: nontraditional participation, commerciality, prior SBIR work, size status or consortium membership. A one-page statement of which gates the company clears, with the evidence attached, does more than any capability brief.

Read the gates precisely. For a prototype OT, at least one of four conditions must hold, and being a small or nontraditional prime does not settle it. The small-business condition covers all significant non-government participants, and the nontraditional condition requires significant participation by a nontraditional defense contractor or nonprofit research institution. The other two are a one-third non-federal cost share and a senior procurement executive determination of exceptional circumstances.

Lead with the customer's situation

A customer who hears a list of authorities hears a sales pitch. A customer who hears "you can test this under the experimental authority, and if it works, here is the competed route to buy it" hears a plan. Picking the authority is the contracting office's call, not the company's. What the company controls is the evidence: which conditions it clears, documented, so that the right choice is also the easy one.

Public sources

The paper behind this post cites these public documents, among others.

The full paper covers twenty-one award and engagement strategies, from prototype OTs to combatant command experimentation. For every one it gives the fit, the cited legal conditions, UDC's advice and the customer's own steps, and it opens with a selector table keyed to the situation the customer is in.

How the Government Can Buy From You

See what is in the paper