Why the zero-based budget is not effective
Following in the steps of the Army, which did a “night court” deep-dive look at its budget to identify about $25 billion in savings to apply towards […]
Month: April 2019
Program managers subjected to luck, not accountability
Program managers are sometimes said to have the most important job in the Department of Defense, but there is also another faction that views the […]
Acquisition Headlines
Defense stock rebound: “Lockheed Martin saw first-quarter earnings of $5.99 a share, an increase of 49% from a year earlier.” That led to an overnight […]
Aerospace work isn’t too big and complex for new entrants
A significant gap has developed between DoD’s view of industry as an always-ready supplier of military capabilities and how industry actually makes decisions on what […]
Did Raytheon’s sensor spot a UFO?
Three F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets practicing dogfight maneuvers were interrupted and revectored mid-mission to investigate an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon; military parlance for a UFO. […]
The Defense Department was never intended to innovate?
Innovation leaders often cite Eastman-Kodak as an example of an enterprise that was too dim-witted to see the writing on the wall and so fell from its […]
What worked in Germany’s WWII Air Force?
Here is Admiral Rickover providing insight into innovative organizations: Admiral RICKOVER. This group is responsible for the design, the development, and the construction and operation […]
The moral foundations of defense acquisition
Our ability to empathize and therefore sympathize with others is also diminished when hard is counterfactual in nature. Suppose B undertakes an act that does […]
Software generates requirements that pulls hardware into the future
Software is very different. It’s not, “I’m going to do a new mode of production that’s going to do more with less.” It’s, “I’m going […]
Acquisition Headlines
“The U.S. Army is looking for information on a 360-degree counter-drone system capable to detect unmanned aircraft systems weighing less than 20 pounds.” I assume […]
Rise of centralization post-WWII
To one extent or another, each of the technical services carried out research and development (including test and evaluation), procurement, production, supply, and even maintenance […]
The supreme irony of the managerial-minded
When diversity increases, unit costs must also increase, because of all those different spare-parts and training needs. But less standardized military forces are more resilient. […]
Big defense primes as gatekeepers to small, innovative firms
Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI) announced on Sunday the creation of the MIT-Lockheed Martin Seed Fund, promoting collaborations […]
Costs are the negative aspect of a valuation process
I start, then, with fundamentals. The conception of costs in modern economic theory is a conception of displaced alternatives: the cost of obtaining anything is […]
What do we mean by big “A” and little “a” in Acquisition?
Every weapon system in the U.S. arsenal is intended to satisfy a specific military need (often referred to as a requirement), must be paid for […]