Podcast: Speed, thrift, and simplicity with Dan Ward
In this episode of Acquisition Talk, I speak with Dan Ward. He spent 20 years in the US Air Force, and has just released his […]
Month: March 2020
Packard’s fly-before-you-buy principle
Perhaps the best way to explain some variations of a practical fly-before-you buy policy is to take several examples. The AX program is one which […]
Acquisition headlines
Trump orders General Motors to make ventilators under Defense Production Act. What did it achieve? “The order does not change GM’s previously announced plans or […]
Raytheon-UTC merger goes forward, but what’s the upside?
“Today’s settlement protects the American taxpayer by preserving competition that leads to lower costs and higher innovation in critical military and defense products,” said Assistant […]
Podcast: Covid-19 impact to government contracting
In this special episode of Acquisition Talk, we listen in on a conversation about the effects of COVID-19 on government contracting, including (1) the Defense […]
Modeling the impact of COVID-19 on defense contract obligations
We don’t even have to look back as far as the 2008 crisis to predict the scale of potential losses. When sequestration hit in 2013, […]
Evaluating price for Other Transactions contracts: call for ideas
The 2018 DOD OTA Guidebook states: “The Government team shall determine price reasonableness. The Government team may need data to establish price reasonableness, including commercial […]
Could the Pentagon have had modern enterprise software tools 15 years earlier?
Preparation for Joint Warfighting is impeded by difficulties inherent in equipping a Joint Force by the separated Services. Divisions continue like fractals to the finest […]
Updated defense costing policy released
On March 13 2020, the new DoD Instruction 5000.73 was released as part of the 5000.02 rewrite for Adaptive Acquisition Framework. It provides new guidance […]
Acquisition headlines
SecNav Modly wants to reduce spending over 5 years by $40 billion to pump shipbuilding and readiness. Here’s how ComNavOps would go about it. Includes […]
The role of analysis in US and French airframing
In Europe, analysis plays a radically different role in aerospace development. A French project team for example, will provide its customer with a dossier calcul, […]
Deconstructing major programs through adherence to standards
The thing we’re going to have to show is that we can deconstruct a major effort like this — not run it like a major […]
Using the Defense Production Act to combat COVID-19
The DPA was inspired by laws from 1941 and 1942 that gave the White House the ability to tell private companies what to make for the good […]
Can we do away with judgment/intuition in systems design?
The judgement inherent in this balancing of programs and systems can no longer be intuitive or rely on past experience alone. The range of choice […]
Kessel Run origin story
During his deployment, as a multi-million-dollar drone tracked the enemy ground vehicles, Capt. Kroger used Google Earth to estimate distance and then crudely time the […]