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Month: January 2023

Should DoD spend half as much money twice as fast?

January 31, 2023 Eric Lofgren 0

Here are a couple slices from a short interview with Palantir’s COO Shyam Sankar on Building the Base podcast with Hondo Geurts and Lauren Bedula. […]

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Acquisition headlines (1/23 – 1/29/2023)

January 30, 2023 Eric Lofgren 0

Navy closes 4 Puget Sound submarine dry docks following earthquake risk study. (USNI News) “As a result of the findings, the Navy over the last […]

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The fundamental problem with 20th century supply chains

January 27, 2023 Eric Lofgren 1

Here’s a slice from an a16z podcast with co-CEO and founder Ryan Petersen of Flexport: The fundamental problem in supply chain is that we’re a […]

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Stockpiling critical minerals must happen early and at scale

January 26, 2023 Eric Lofgren 0

Here’s an excerpt from the War Production Board’s history of industrial mobilization for World War II, Industrial Mobilization For War: Volume 1 Program and Administration. […]

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Podcast: No time to waste for defense innovation with BMNT’s Pete Newell

January 25, 2023 Eric Lofgren 0

I was pleased to have Pete Newell back on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss the urgency of getting innovative defense prototypes into the field […]

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The need to rebalance DoD spending toward Procurement to deter China

January 24, 2023 Eric Lofgren 0

The excellent Pete Modigliani had an interesting post recently on the proportion of RDT&E and Procurement in defense budgets. In the 1980s, Procurement was nearly […]

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Acquisition headlines (1/16 – 1/22/2023)

January 23, 2023 Eric Lofgren 0

The Navy Put Its Next Amphib on Hold. Good. (Defense One) “Unlike existing amphibious connectors that handle traditional Marine ship-to-shore movements, such as the currently […]

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The problem of program manager tenure in DoD

January 20, 2023 Eric Lofgren 4

Many of the great defense programs of the World War II and early Cold War periods were intimately associated with PMs of significant tenure: Bill […]

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CSIS report on inadequate surge capacity for munitions

January 19, 2023 Eric Lofgren 0

This table on surge capacity from Mark Cancian at CSIS has been making the rounds but I’ll repost it here because it is so important. […]

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DoD reprogrammed nearly $5 billion to increase munitions procurement in FY 22 in response to the Ukraine conflict

January 18, 2023 Eric Lofgren 0

DoD’s Comptroller puts out budget execution data every quarter in a form called the DD1416s, which basically hasn’t changed since the early 1960s. It details […]

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FY 2023 shipbuilding plans-reality mismatch, analysis from CBO

January 17, 2023 Eric Lofgren 0

Eric Labs at the Congressional Budget Office provided an interesting presentation at the 2023 Surface Navy Association’s national symposium. He finds that in every year […]

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Acquisition headlines (1/9 – 1/16/2023)

January 16, 2023 Eric Lofgren 0

Why DoD should get out of the R&D business: Mislav Tolusic. (Bloomberg Law) “The DOD should go back to its primary mission of running a […]

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Update on the AFWERX FY 2022 annual report

January 13, 2023 Eric Lofgren 0

Here are some excerpts from the Air Force AFWEX annual report for FY 2022: AFVentures is delivering more awards faster than ever to small businesses, […]

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What economics and entrepreneurship can teach us about the acquisition process

January 12, 2023 Eric Lofgren 0

Here are excerpts from a great lecture by Israel Kirzner on Economics and Entrepreneurship which focuses on economists Ludwig Von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. While […]

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How to manage creative talent and lessons for DoD

January 11, 2023 Eric Lofgren 0

Here’s an interesting conversation with Disney CEO Robert Iger on the a16z podcast: Alan Horn was the kind of studio executive that knew how to […]

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