Can defense acquisition become highly reliable? Yes! Just add redundancy.
Is it possible to take a set of individually unreliable units and form them into a system “with any arbitrarily high reliability”? Can we, in […]
Blog Posts
Lessons from Mark Zuckerberg on moving fast in product development
Here’s Mark Zuckerberg talking to Tim Ferriss about product development on virtual reality gear: … being able to just work on a project that’s a […]
There’s no time for a top-down approach to JADC2
The Department of Defense’s new Joint All-Domain Command and Control strategy is short on details and long on the kind of vague top-down direction that exemplifies […]
Acquisition headlines 3/28 – 4/3/2022
Navy’s shipbuilding request may be violation of law, Inhofe warns. (Breaking Defense) Inhofe’s tweet: “The @USNavy says we need at least 355 battle force ships […]
DoD exported PPBE to Eastern Europe after the Cold War. Here’s how it went.
he budgeting method that has come to be known as the Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System (PPBS) – or Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) […]
500 Javelin-per-day requirement in Ukraine: Is it reasonable and what could it cost?
I want to come back to an article from the weekly headlines real quickly: The Ukrainians have submitted similar lists in recent weeks but a […]
In the economics of acquisition, who is in the best place to make choices?
Economist Arnold Kling recounts an argument from Milton Friedman about whether people make rational decisions on behalf of other people: If you buy a coat […]
Takeaways from Bill LaPlante’s confirmation hearing for USD A&S
Here are some notes on William LaPlante’s confirmation hearing to become USD Acquisition & Sustainment — courtesy of the excellent Pete Modigliani. Congress gave DoD […]
Acquisition headlines (3/21 – 3/27/2022)
Stinger and Javelin production can be boosted, says Army acquisitions chief. (Defense News) “Speeding or increasing production of the anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, though, involves […]
Visualizing the intellectual property strategy for a lifecycle sustainment plan
Here is the excellent Christopher Monsey in the Exceptional Release, Intellectual Property (IP) Strategies in Major System Acquisitions: What are We Missing? He asks the […]
Why can’t acquisition embrace military concepts of mission command?
Here’s an excerpt from Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 6, Command and Control: As with decision making, we should decentralize execution planning to the lowest possible […]
Industrial mobilization for WWII: How 20,000 companies made production commitments prior to war
Here is a piece on how assistant secretary of war for industrial mobilization Louis Johnson approached readiness in 1938 — prior to the break out […]
Is the Air Force heading back to paralysis by analysis in weapons choice?
Here’s Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall quoted in a recent Space News article, speaking about problems in current acquisition: “Overall, we start more […]
Acquisition headlines (3/14 – 3/20/2022)
Cyber Command prepares to gain significant budget control. (Fed Scoop) “The fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act gave the commander of Cybercom responsibility for direct control […]
Reducing uncertainty and discretion in development contracts
The market for defense R&D is imperfect and fails to provide a reliable mechanism by which the government can automatically secure performance at or near […]