Acquisition headlines
An Air Force pilot will battle AI in a virtual F-16 dogfight next week. You can watch it live. “We envision a future in which […]
Month: August 2020
Role of competition in the economy and in government
In the private economy other competing firms can duplicate or take different points of view about the nature of desirable products. But there are not […]
What’s holding DIU back from scaling technologies?
“We’re not moving in government at an agile pace that reflects the nature of the competition. It’s about speed,” the DIU director said. “When we […]
Radical uncertainty + cost-benefit analysis = danger
Most big decisions that we take are unique. They’re one-offs. And that means you really do need to think through yourself what is happening now. […]
Beyond budgeting — breaking a 100 year industrial model
… budgeting takes a lot of time. Ford Motor Company once estimated that its planning and budgeting process cost around $1.2 billion a year. And […]
Is SpaceX 50x more productive than usual government programs?
Here’s an example: five years ago, Elon Musk was working on his reusable rocket, the one that can take off and then land on the […]
How long are lead times to surge military materiel?
New manufacturing facilities are certainly one of the keys to increasing production. Today, it takes a company 3 to 5 years to build a new […]
Acquisition headlines
Tinker units collaborate, produce first 3-D printed engine component. “We haven’t had a 3D printed metal component in Air Force engines before, but in the […]
Transcripts to the Acquistion Talk episode with Steve Blank
Here are the transcripts to my discussion with entrepreneur Steve Blank. I apologize for the general lack of punctuation. ______________________ Eric Lofgren: i’m speaking with […]
Could China’s ambitions turn to the use of military power?
In this current historical moment, [the Chinese] official documents talk about this as a time that is marked by certain inevitable trends of history. These […]
Aircraft production during WWII — US output far greater than combined enemy production
From 1941 onward aircraft production in the United States exceeded the combined output of both its major enemies by a generous margin. The implications of […]
Why defense programs should fix cost and schedule, not technical, baselines
Results of this research suggest that the defense acquisition system should break the concept of the PM’s triple constraint of cost, schedule, and performance. The […]
The birth of the F-18 and how the Navy defied of Congress
In some ways, the institutional challenges faced by the F-16 pale in comparison to those faced by the F-18. The program faced cancellation by Congress […]
What are the legal issues at stake in Trump’s border wall reprogramming, and how might it spell the end of rapid acquisition reform
Congressional action on the FY2021 appropriations bills comes amid ongoing efforts by the Trump Administration to redirect DOD funding to construct barriers along the U.S.-Mexico […]
Acquisition headlines
The last tank has left Marines Corps base 29 Palms, soon the entire service. “The Marine Corps plans to eventually divest the entirety of its […]