Leap to Disruptive Technologies: One Account of Many for Cost Disease
I recently wrote about the available evidence of cost disease in weapon systems acquisition. How about causes of cost disease? There are many explanations relevant […]
Month: October 2018
Overpriced coffee mugs, DOD scandal of the week
A Fox News report alleges that the Air Force spent an exorbitant amount of money on specialty coffee mugs for the 60th Aerial Port Squadron at Travis […]
DARPA anthropologist talks culture, science, teamwork, and replication
DARPA has a cultural anthropologist with interesting insights: Cultural anthropology really studies the world we make for ourselves. There we veer into the realm of […]
Defense Acquisition as a Cost Disease Sector: What’s the Evidence?
At any given time, you will have sectors where demand is growing faster than productivity (think of health care and education) and other sectors where […]
Critiques of the DOD requirements process
A major part of the military’s struggle to keep up with, much less stay ahead of, global and technological change lies in its requirements process […]
Clarifications on Then Year dollars
In a previous post, I described the difference between Then Year dollars, or money that will be spent over a period of years, and Current […]
Update on readiness, getting fighter aircraft to 80%
I discussed how the FY 2019 NDAA has pilfered O&M funds for RDT&E, likely putting system readinesss in an even worse position. Now, the SecDef […]
Explanations for defense CEO pay jumps after 9-11
CEO pay for defense contractors skyrocketed after 9-11 but before the invasion of Iraq. Lockheed Martin: $5.8M in 2000 increased to $25.3M in 2002 General […]
Readiness Crisis in the Making
The DOD always wants to modernize at the expense of operations & maintenance. When the Navy developed the first submarine platform to launch nuclear weapons […]
Euro Shipbuilding Consolidation?
DefenseNews asks of the European shipbuilding industry: “Is there enough drive to reach a unified shipbuilding enterprise?… “As European shipbuilders prepare to transform their nations’ […]
The JEDI Contract: A Layered Story
For the DOD, getting the right work on contract is a difficult task. Acquisition chief Ellen Lord wanted to get time from Request for Proposal […]
Vulnerable F22s
Its always good to remember, don’t put all your eggs in one basket: “On October 10th 2018 a van parked at a motel adjacent to […]
Counterarguments to Acquisition Reform
I’m happy to announce that I’m an Emergent Ventures fellow! I start with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University on October 22. My venture […]