Podcast: Commercial space, venture, and DoD with Jordan Noone and Jenna Bryant
I was pleased to have Jordan Noone and Jenna Bryant on the Acquisition Talk podcast to talk about how commercial companies in space and deep […]
Blog Posts
Nature is nonlinear, and that matters to weapon systems management
The Brits, not once but twice, the last time being in the Falklands, couldn’t hit anything with naval gunfire because they forgot to reverse the […]
What’s missing from analysis of competition in the defense industry?
Since the 1990s, the defense sector has consolidated substantially, transitioning from 51 to 5 aerospace and defense prime contractors. As a result, DoD is increasingly […]
Acquisition headlines (2/14 – 2/20/2021)
Building the future US navy surface force. (Naval News) I think the chart below was the most interesting part: US Army’s delayed battle command system […]
DoD is failing on the three E’s: experimentation, evaluation, and evolution
Here is the Director of Defense Research & Engineering Harold Brown in 1962, discussing how he has responsibility for all R&E activities in DoD since […]
How will inflation impact military budgets, capabilities? It’s not straight-forward…
Personnel costs accounted for 38% of the Army’s fiscal year 2022 budget request, compared with 27% for the Navy and 21% for the Air Force, […]
GAO: To keep up with surging Congressional reporting, DoD should modernize
The Department of Defense is required to report to Congress on an array of national security topics each year. The number of new reporting requirements […]
The secret to the success of the F/A-18E/F: Lessons in expeditious innovation
For 100 years, success in aerial combat came from the ability to point the nose of the aircraft and shoot the sucker. To do that […]
Acquisition headlines (2/7 – 2/13/2022)
State Department approves $13B F-15EX sale to Indonesia, on heels of Rafale deal. (Breaking Defense) “… buy up to 36 Boeing F-15EX aircraft… just hours […]
Intangible capital is important for the economy and defense acquisition
I think there’s a deep structural shift, which is really important. That is that intangible capital has become more and more important in our economy. The nature […]
Event: Securing the MRAP
My colleague James Hasik recently published his newest book, Securing the MRAP: Lessons Learned in Marketing and Military Procurement. In this episode of the Acquisition […]
Lessons in mobilization: The industrial base is too small and too slow
In the event of major war, the identified industrial base dedicated to the Army would be unable to produce sufficient materiel to support combat consumption […]
Mason GovCon releases Acquisition Next: A playbook to break the industrial age paradigm
I’ve talked a lot about PPBE Reform on this blog, and while that is an important effort, there’s a lot that the workforce can do […]
Acquisition headlines (1/31 – 2/6/2022)
Change how OTAs are used to make them an essential tool against China. (Breaking Defense) “Section 824 of the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization […]
Defense industry is afraid of testing hypersonics, lacks test infrastructure
Here’s an interesting bit from SecDef Llyod Austin’s meeting with more than a dozen hypersonic defense contractors: During the meeting, multiple CEOs described the need […]