Acquisition headlines (2/21 – 2/27/2021)
Kelly worries F-35 flying costs won’t hit target, and that China may get NGAD first. (Air Force Magazine) ““I’m not brimming with confidence” that the […]
Month: February 2021
Why are there defense authorizations and appropriations?
The budgeting that Wildavsky, Caiden, and other scholars defined as “traditional” was designed to finance bureaus that provide a service to the public or, more […]
Is the cost of change astronomical before a piece of metal is bent?
The reason that far too little… flexibility is purchased—aside from a development philosophy which results in large technical as well as financial commitments very early […]
Permissionless innovation and the graveyard of things never created
There is another reason for decentralization. That reason is what’s called permissionless innovation. If censorship is the thing you saw that now goes away, permissionless […]
Eric Schmidt: This is how DoD ends up with a camel rather than a horse
Chairman Jack Reed: We were chatting before and reminiscing about days gone by. One of the relics of those days gone by is the defense […]
New DoD cost estimating guide fails to address the problems facing the cost community
“No one can predict the future” is an often-used cliché, and yet this is what the DoD asks its cost estimating community to do every […]
To compete with China, DoD requires a new paradigm for budgeting
The U.S. military’s lack of adaptability also puts DoD at a disadvantage against its primary competitor, China’s People’s Liberation Army. Unlike the Pentagon’s attempt to […]
Acquisition headlines (2/14 – 2/20/2021)
US Air Force entertains new design to replace F-16. (Aviation Week) “Any decision about the future of the Air Force’s tactical aircraft fleet will require […]
You can’t place a price on an unknown
Cost estimating for development programs has apparently been too widely credited in the Defense Department, in industry, in the Congress, and by the public with […]
What does DoD find to be the “biggest challenge” to experimentation?
Possibly the biggest challenge to experimentation is securing funding for the experiment or to apply the recommendations resulting from the experiment. When the initiation of […]
Systems engineering isn’t a substitute for talent and capability
I believe that the fundamental difficulty is that we have all gotten so entranced with the technique that we think entirely in terms of procedures, […]
Sustainment planning gets an overhaul in FY21 NDAA
Section 802 of the FY 2021 NDAA is called “Improving planning, execution, and oversight of life cycle sustainment activities,” but really it has dramatic effect […]
How can DoD better link strategy with budget?
One of the truisms of defense management is that strategy and budgets must be connected. A “wish list” strategy that results in endless unfunded requirements […]
One key to software success in DoD: Consumption-Based Solutions
Here’s a lengthy but important discussion on Consumption Based Solutions from Nick Tsiopanas at a nice NPS ARP webinar, Innovations in Software Acquisition at the […]
Acquisition headlines (2/7 – 2/13/2021)
JADC2 strategy to hit Milley’s desk in days. (Breaking Defense) “Just as important as the strategy itself, Crall and members of his J6 team explained […]