Stop funding new R&D under existing major programs, fund a prototype program

Here’s a good point from Craig Hooper over at Forbes:

Given that research and development hard to fund these days, Navy innovation aboard ships and subs are now frequently blended into big procurements as immature, untested and poorly thought-out subsystems. This corner-cutting habit of hiding research and development in a big, expensive vessel procurement or forcing new technologies into an ongoing combatant production run has a real cost.

R&D is hidden in large existing MDAPs because that’s where the money is. Moreover, programs are often funded to a higher risk-adjusted budget figure, creating a not insignificant cushion after all the expected contracts obligations are met.

The intent of the program budget is to create a plan for future government activities. It can be self-defeating if it ends up altering the efficient pattern of exploratory developments, or if it requires premature integration with existing platforms as a precondition for funding.

And another good point:

The U.S. Navy must learn to say “enough”, and build combatants that work while directing new and untested ideas towards a vibrant, well-funded prototyping program.

Certainly there exists some “level of effort” prototype funding, or unprogrammed funds, but it needs to be well-funded and have political backing to make it last longer than a couple years.