The 409th Contracting Support Brigade, a subordinate unit to Army Contracting Command, is regionally aligned to U.S. Army Europe and Africa. With its proximity to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and knowledge of requirements in the EUCOM theater, the brigade partnered with U.S. industry operating in Ukraine to procure proven technologies to bolster U.S. defenses.
Conflicts in Europe and the Middle East have provided insights into the transformation of warfare; the pace, equipment, and conduct of warfare are unlike anything seen before. Acting in accordance with SECWAR’s Acquisition Reform and SECARMY’s Army Transformation Initiative, ACC has leveraged flexible acquisition authorities to move faster and integrate with industry partners to field capabilities to warfighters. The command has set the tone for a transformative shift, empowering subordinate units with maximum flexibility to leverage streamlined acquisition processes backed by delegation of authority.
Starting with the right industry partners, the war in Ukraine has given the U.S. Army a full view of how warfare continues to evolve daily. The defense industrial base, along with nontraditional defense contractors, have not waited for requirements to be published to start innovating in support of these dynamic concepts. Companies have been in Ukraine iterating on technologies since the outset of the conflict.
An early partnership formed under flexible authorities was with Napatree Technology LLC. Napatree has significant experience supporting Ukraine and proven technology to counter multiple variants of enemy drones. Napatree was awarded a Master Prototype Other Transaction Authority Agreement by the 409th CSB. Under this agreement, Napatree has provided evaluation and validation of advanced UAS tactics, techniques, and procedures and provided multiple systems proven effective at countering threats in the area of responsibility.
"The relentless dynamic occurring along the Eastern Flank requires that the Dept. of War and the defense industrial base evolve and acquire at the speed of war," said Chris Paitson, chief and agreements officer for the Regional Contracting Office – Wiesbaden, who oversaw the agreement award. "This mandates we operate with a common end state, default to rapid execution, and operate transparently."
The timeline from requirements definition to a prototype agreement award was brief. Leveraging flexible acquisition authorities, a draft agreement was provided to the vendor within 24 hours and awarded by the 409th CSB within two weeks of initial notification that the requirement existed.
The technology fielded to warfighters has been proven in multiple theaters, including EUCOM and CENTCOM. The Merops Anti-Drone System was initially fielded to units in EUCOM under the prototype agreement awarded by the 409th CSB, further deployed to CENTCOM in support of Operation Epic Fury, and is now established as a program of record to be scaled globally. From start to finish, this process took less than 180 days to complete.
The acquisition construct of rapidly moving from identifying a capability gap to testing available technologies and transitioning successful technologies to scale is the new normal. ACC has partnered with the Global Tactical Edge Acquisition Directorate in implementing this accelerated acquisition cycle. Unifying the efforts of program managers and contracting officers to support Army Service Component Commands has provided tremendous benefits, a partnership that will continue as acquisition professionals across the Army work to deliver capability to the warfighter.
| Date Taken: |
08.05.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
08.05.2026 11:32 |
| Story ID: |
571628 |
| Location: |
DE |
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