The Defense Electronics Consortium (DEC) is a DoD–sponsored consortium of industry and academia members with a mission to strengthen the economic and force posture of the U.S. defense electronics industrial base. The DEC provides direct links between the electronics industry, the DoD, and other government agencies. Through funded projects and a variety of programs such as conferences, networking events, and white papers, the DEC, in partnership with the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program (IBAS), is working to bolster the security and resiliency of the defense electronics supply chain.

The DEC is led by USPAE with support from ATI, both also introduced below.  The DEC works with the DoD and other agency leadership to help identify challenges, needs, and opportunities in defense electronics.  Projects selected by the government to address those issues can be funded through DEC under the authority of the Cornerstone OTA, which allows for research, prototyping and potential follow-on production where competition may be waived by the DoD, under the authority of the OTA enabling legislation. A secure member portal facilitates the entire process, which gives smaller and non-traditional defense suppliers and academia greater access to DoD opportunities.

USPAE, the managing organization of the DEC, is a nonprofit industry association dedicated to ensuring the U.S. government (USG) has access to resilient, trusted, and secure electronics supply chains. USPAE members include companies, academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations from the U.S. and its allies, all involved in electronics research, design, manufacturing, and assembly. USPAE competed for and won the award under the Cornerstone Other Transaction Agreement to establish and operate the DEC, and to execute the first project for Pb-free solder research.

The Cornerstone Consortium, which is comprised of 18 industrial base sectors, provides a collaborative environment for the identification and resolution of capability gaps across the Department of Defense (DoD) enterprise, both within and across sectors. Cornerstone’s tailored agreements provide an effective mechanism for executing industrial base prototype requirements by streamlining the research, development, prototyping, demonstration, and qualification process.  The DEC has been established under the authority of the Cornerstone OTA to address one of the 18 industrial base sectors, Sector Area 13 Electronics.  “The industrial base consists of engineering companies that design integrated circuits (IC); front end companies that manufacture ICs; back end manufacturers that assemble ICs into packages; IC vendors that design and market ICs; systems integration companies that combine ICs into electronic systems; and others as applicable.”