Every year the Department of Defense (DoD) works with the Small Business Administration (SBA) to set goals for small business participation in prime contracts and subcontracts. Small businesses are a vital part of the defense industrial base and supporting them strengthens America’s economy. Small businesses also bring innovation to DoD that makes warfighters more ready and lethal.
How Agency Goals Are Negotiated and Established
The SBA works with federal agencies to establish annual small business contracting goals. The SBA ensures that the sum total of all of the individual agency prime contracting goals exceeds the 23 percent target established by Congress.
The DoD Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) negotiates DoD-wide small business prime contract and subcontract goals with the SBA. DoD OSBP then assigns small business prime contracting goals to buying commands.
DoD Small Business Prime Contracting Goals
DoD’s fiscal year 2018 small business prime contracting goal is 22 percent. DoD aims to award at least 22 percent of small-business-eligible prime-contract spending to small businesses in fiscal year 2018.
DoD also has prime contracting goals for woman-owned small businesses (WOSBs), small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs), HUBZone-certified small businesses and service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSBs). The WOSB, HUBZone and SDVOSB goals are established by Congress.
Component and Agency Small Business Prime Contracting Goals
This chart identifies the fiscal year 2018 small business prime contracting goals for 25 DoD buying commands.
You can find the fiscal year 2017 prime contracting goals for the buying commands here. Some buying command’s goals increased while others decreased. For example, the Army’s prime contracting goal was 26 percent in fiscal year 2017 versus 29 percent in fiscal year 2018.
DoD Small Business Subcontracting Goals
In addition to prime contracting goals, DoD has goals for awarding subcontracting spending to small businesses. DoD’s fiscal year 2018 subcontracting goal is 33 percent. DoD also has subcontracting goals for WOSBs, SDBs, HUBZone-certified small businesses and SDVOSBs. The WOSB, HUBZone and SDVOSB goals are established by Congress.
DoD Small Business Professionals try to shape defense procurements so that they are either a small business set-aside or have a robust small business subcontracting program.
Calculation of Achievements
Every year SBA measures DoD’s achievements against our goals. In the SBA’s most recent Scorecard, DoD earned an “A.” You can learn how the SBA calculates DoD’s Small Business Procurement Scorecard here.
Learn More
Are you a small business interested in working for DoD? Our Guide to Marketing to DoD explains how to get started.
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We implement and oversee policies that help generate new procurement suppliers for the DoD, resulting in a stronger industrial base, greater competition and higher-quality goods and services provided at lower costs for taxpayers.
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