Kelly [Johnson] loved to tell how a general named Frank Carroll was so enthusiastic hearing Kelly describe the speed and maneuverability of the new P-80, America’s first jet, which had been pushing for, that Carroll decided to bypass all the red tape delays and do all the purchase order paperwork himself. “We came back from a quick lunch at two in the afternoon. He had an official letter of intent for me to start work on the P-80 drafted, approved, signed, and sealed in time for me to catch the 3:30 flight back to California,” Kelly said, chuckling delightedly every time he told the story.
The same thing happened with the F-104 Starfighter. General Bruce Holloway, who was then head of SAC [strategic air command], was a colonel in procurement back in the 1950s, and listened to Kelly’s pitch about building a supersonic jet. Holloway needed to obtain a list of Air Force requirements to match Kelly’s performance description as the first step toward forwarding a contract for a prototype. “By God, Kelly, I’ll write it myself,” he declared in a blaze of enthusiasm. Kelly helped him draft it, and the two of them carried it up the chain of command to a general named Don Yates, who signed off on it. Total elapsed time: two hours.
That was from Ben Rich’s excellent book, Skunk Works. This story sounds unimaginable today. One general doing all the procurement paperwork, and another writing the requirements, themselves!
Let’s say moving requirements for a new aircraft takes a minimum of one year in the Pentagon today (more likely, several years). So between 1952 and 2021, the time to build a requirement grew from two hours to one year in best-case circumstances. That represents annualized growth of 12 percent per year.
Similarly, with the P-80 experience, the time to get started on contract was just over one hour. By contrast, the GAO cited Army procurement leadtime for actions $10-$100 million at nearly two years! That’s about 15 percent growth per year.
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