AFRL awarded $164 million in fiscal 2024 to service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses, again higher than the amount awarded in fiscal 2023, the lab said.
The lab also said it has not yet seen a significant impact from recent Trump administration directives steering agencies away from previous DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives.
However, AFRL had one “low dollar-value product contract” specifically related to DEI activities paused, the organization said in response to questions from the Dayton Daily News.
“AFRL had one DEI-related contract with a Washington, D.C.-based firm which is currently on pause,” a spokesman for Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) said.
The spokesman declined to identify the company. (Like AFRL, AFMC is based at Wright-Patterson.)
That contract pause complied with one of Trump’s executive orders, the “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” order signed Jan. 20.
A federal judge on Feb. 21 largely blocked Trump’s executive orders that sought to end DEI programs, national reports said. A federal judge has since maintained a preliminary injunction blocking key provisions of those executive orders.
AFRL’s Small Disadvantaged Business contracting goal has changed from 13% in fiscal year 2024 to 5%, which is the statutorily established small disadvantaged business goal, the lab said. All other contracting goals remain the same.
The Small Business Administration reset the small disadvantaged business goal in January after the Trump administration took office.
For contracting purposes, the federal government deems a small business “disadvantaged” if at least 51% of the business is owned by one or more individuals who are members of minority groups who have historically been subjected to “racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias.”
AFRL also said its small business staff size and responsibilities have not changed.
“We are focused on continuing to connect, inform, support, align, and team with the innovative talent our small businesses provide to address key needs facing our Air and Space forces,” AFRL said in a statement. “AFRL’s small business partnerships are critical sources of innovation and play a key role in transitioning technologies to deliver options and solutions to address Department of the Air Force requirements.”
Small businesses are the engine that “we’re going to depend on now and into the future to provide an advantage to our warfighters. It empowers this very group to help us navigate the future potential of bringing in and embracing this larger ecosystem even to the next level,” Timothy Sakulich, AFRL executive director and member of the Senior Executive Service, said in January 2024.
With more than 12,000 military and civilians working worldwide, AFRL spearheads Air Force research into the planes, weapons and systems of the future. In the summer of 2024, the lab oversaw a $7 billion portfolio of investments.
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