Podcast: Risk taking, commercial tech, and the ARCI program with Bill Johnson

June 30, 2022 Eric Lofgren Podcast 0

I was pleased to have Bill Johnson on the Acquisition Talk podcast to talk about how he helped bring commercial technology, open architecture, and continuous delivery to the sonar community in the 1990s with the Acoustic Rapid COTS Insertion (ARCI) program. Bill was the deputy program manger and pioneered many of the techniques DoD is still trying to go after today, and the results speak for themselves. ARCI achieved a 60-fold decrease in real processing cost, a seven-fold increase in sensor performance, and reduced false alarms by 40 percent.

Download the full-text transcript

Bill explained that after the Cold War, the RDT&E budget fell by 70 percent for undersea sonar systems. Around the same time, John Walker sold information to the Russians about how the United States detected and classified enemy submarines. Suddenly, their submarines became very quite. Acoustic superiority became a national security imperative.

The typical reaction for the defense acquisition system is to demand more money to solve the problem. The general manager of the prime contractor at the time IBM, which later merged into Lockheed Martin, told Bill that they’ve “got deep pockets.” The contractor could keep R&D going while the program office searched for more money. “Hey, we’re part of this problem,” Bill recalled thinking. “We had to leverage the commercial side.”

The need to think differently

During the 1980s and 1990s, commercial computing had taken off. Processors were getting widespread use in new sectors like gaming. But the acquisition community was skeptical that commercial tech wouldn’t be survivable. The Navy labs that had been leading development for decades wanted to continue doing things the same way.

At the time, a major change in sonar would take four to six years. Bill recognized he wouldn’t have the time or funding to do things the same way. “We’ve not going to eat the elephant in one bite; we’re going to take a piece.” That pieces would be the towed array, the TB-23, which was a long hose packed with underwater hydrophones.

He found money to get started using the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to develop new algorithm to sift through the data. He also had funding for legacy sonar systems which he decided to tie off to get ARCI started. Commercial hardware needed to be cocooned in a hardened container to absorb the shock. The initial release occurred within 18 months and developed a rhythm of releasing software every year and hardware every two years. As Bill recounted:

I remember the initial plan that my logistics people came to me, what they had done basically was taken the old system and crossed out the name of the old system and put the new system on there and gave that to me as a plan.

 

We’re not making lifetime buys of processors, like in the old days where the old processors sitting on the shelf that were bought for lifetime buys. You could build a whole new submarine for how much it cost to put those processors on the shelf for spares. Now, let’s just take advantage of Moore’s Law and just buy things that we need.

While analysis of the problem like determining Total Ownership Cost are important exercises, fully planning a program decades into the future does not work for new and innovative programs. Relying on commercial technology, for example, means that government must be able to react to changes. For example, Bill went to Intel to see how they developed product roadmaps. He was struck that their roadmaps only went out a couple years while DoD’s could go 20-plus years. Commercial industry recognized that a lot of the future was unknown. ARCI adopted a similar path:

In the old days we have a big thick specification. And I’m saying that doesn’t work… For ARCI, the details were worked out after the contract was let. As you do it, document what you’re doing so that the other guys can see it is all done in the open. It’s transparency and leadership.

Bill puts program managers into two categories. First, here are managers that “drive trains… they stay on the track, they keep a schedule.” There’s another program manager who doesn’t deal with tracks. “He’s on the edge of the wilderness. He’s has to live by his wits. Indians out there, people that shoot arrows at you. I think anybody who’s been a pioneer in this acquisition business is familiar with catching arrows and they come from different directions and unexpected directions.”

Government as ringmaster

The bureaucracy itself was the greatest barrier to change. For their part, the contractors came along when incentivized to do the right thing. For example, the prime contractor was used to managing the whole program including subcontractors. ARCI separated small businesses from the prime and put a clause in their separate contracts. An award fee would only be paid if both the small business and the prime were successful. If one failed, both received zero award fee.

Bill argued that for an open architecture to work, there must also be an open business system. That means the government must take a greater role in helping the prime manage the program. He provided a useful analogy:

Remember the Barnum and Bailey circus? Gunther Gable Williams was the guy with a whip and the lions, tigers and bears. He had to be good at his job to have a good show, but these are lions and tigers and bears he’s dealing with. They’ll eat each other up. It’ll be a bad show if he’s not good at it.

 

And it’s the same way with this approach. You’ve got competitors that are working together, these small businesses, big businesses, university labs, and Navy labs. They want to eat. You need a ring master, and that’s what the government [program manager] should do. The government’s a ring master. I think there are too many program managers that want to just put the prime contractor in charge of the whole thing.

Another major part of success was a focus on operational testing and deployment. Bill went to sea with every release of capability, and gave “extra credit” in evaluations to personnel who went to sea in the submarines. He even got approval to get one of the first women to ever go aboard a submarine. This isn’t common for program offices, Bill says, and many people came up with all kinds of reasons to avoid going.

ARCI also made sure that every deploying sub got the latest system. Through these deployments, ARCI personnel learned a lot about what constraints the sonar techs faced. Not every problem was a technology problem. This close-knit relationship with the fleet made sure that the program could withstand attacks from all angles of the acquisition community.

Making a difference

One of the interesting parts of ARCI is people’s perception of change. They gave a survey which in part asked about the biggest impediments to change. External stakeholders who weren’t part of the program said things like Congress, laws, the budget process. Program participants, however, largely picked “fear of change.” Bill explained that “There are so many ways that the organism of the military industrial complex works to. Fight off, the white blood cells come out and fight. These changes that you get worn down.”

Making a difference in military systems is no easy feat. As Bill explained:

It takes a heavy toll on you. I gained about 50 pounds and my hair turned white. It is hard. That’s a 24/7 job. I was working Sundays. I’d be at my desk at six in the morning, get home at seven, and then working the evening. I’ve always wanted to work at a job where I can make a difference. I think everybody on the program was feeling like they were making a difference and they could see themselves in their work.

In the end, Bill and his team made a difference. Moreover, everything they did was within the law. They took advantage of things where others assumed you couldn’t. ARCI received the “Hammer” award from Vice President Al Gore that recognizes federal employees and their partners for improving outcomes and reducing costs. During the award ceremony, Bill said that if anything, the program had too much money. He recalled an Admiral who stood up and walk out of the ceremony.

Thanks Bill Johnson!

I’d like to thank Bill Johnson for joining me on the Acquisition Talk podcast. There’s a ton more information on ARCI and the case study details of what made it an acquisition success. Important papers and other resources are below. Be sure to check them out!

Resources on Acoustic Rapid COTS Insertion, open architecture, and papers from Bill Johnson:

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