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 by the federal budget, and is designed and built within an acquisition system. From concept to deployment, a weapon system must go through the three-step process of identifying the required weapon system, establishing a budget, and acquiring the system. These three steps are organized as follows:
1. The Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System—for identifying requirements.
2. The Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System—for allocating resources and budgeting.
3. The Defense Acquisition System—for developing and/or buying the item.
These three steps (each of which is a system onto itself), taken together, are often referred to as “Big ‘A’” acquisition, in contrast to the Defense Acquisition System, which is referred to as “little ‘a’” acquisition (see Figure 1).
From the always excellent Moshe Schwartz at the CRS.
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