Defense dept. courts commercial vendors to help defeat WMD threats.

The Pentagon is seeking "non-traditional" commercial suppliers of chemical and biological defense products. Of particular interest are vaccines, long-range sensors that can detect unknown deadly agents and warning systems that can alert potential victims of a bio-warfare attack.

Backed by a $400 million annual budget for research and development, the Defense Threats Reduction Agency plans to lure contractors who so far have been reluctant to work with the U.S. government.

DTRA, based in Fort Belvoir, Va., took charge of the chemical and biological defense research program in 2002. Since then, it has found that the cadre of suppliers the Pentagon usually relies upon is not enough to meet the agency's growing demands for innovative technologies, officials said.

"As we have begun to take a leadership role, we believe it's necessary to have access to traditional and non-traditional contractors," said John Connell, who runs the chemical-biological defense technology transition division at DTRA.

In early September, DTRA released a so-called "sources sought" solicitation intended to attract commercial suppliers that generally would not consider getting involved in Pentagon programs.

"We are confident we can tap into new vendors," said Connell.

The solicitation asked companies to inform DTRA of what products and technologies they are capable of delivering in three key areas:

* Medical Technologies: Diagnostics, therapeutics treatments and drugs to treat victims of biological attacks.

* Devices: Detectors of chemical and biological agents, decontamination systems, models and simulations of emerging threats.

* Technology Transition: Adapting technologies from the lab to military and homeland defense applications.

The solicitation generated a large number of responses, which were due November 10, said Connell. An "industry day" conference with interested contractors is planned for early December.

DTRA's funding, he noted, will be split between private-sector contracts and Defense Department government lab contracts. "We work with industry, academia, Defense Department and national laboratories," Connell said. The agency expects to award several contracts by Sept. 2006.

The solicitation primarily seeks products and technologies for military applications, but that could change as the Defense Department takes over new responsibilities in the area of homeland defense, he added.

To make the work more attractive to commercial firms, DTRA plans to waive federal acquisition regulations that would require contractors to have a Pentagon-approved accounting system. Under a contracting method known as "other transactions authority," or OTA, the Defense Department can simplify the accounting rules and allow the contract to be governed by "commercial practices."

"It makes working with the Defense Department a little bit more attractive to the commercial industry," said Connell. "Typically, one of the issues for commercial vendors is to have a Defense Department approved accounting system. OTA is able to set aside that requirement."

Another reason why commercial firms shy away from Pentagon work is the fear that their proprietary technology will be disclosed to potential competitors. DTRA has assured bidders that their intellectual property will be protected, Connell said.

Contractors, for their part, are optimistic about future business opportunities in the chemical and biological defense arena. Many companies had expected the Department of Homeland Security to generate billions of dollars worth of contracts after the agency was created in 2002. But so far, DHS contracts have contributed less than 5 percent of the industry's revenues, said Richard Thomas, vice president of Sceptor Industries Inc., a provider of chemical and biological defense technologies. "The Defense Department will be the only agency that can support an industrial base," Thomas said.

DTRA's goal of attracting new suppliers makes sense, he said, because the novel technologies the agency is seeking are more likely to come from non-traditional commercial companies.

"The Defense Department continuously wants to reach into the industry to get the best technology," Thomas said.