Cutting contract documentation by 90+ percent
Here is Air Force general Chapman at a 1971 appropriations supplemental hearing with DepSecDef David Packard, asking for additional funds to do prototyping including funds […]
Blog Posts
Here are the first picks on the PPBE Reform Commission
There seems to be broad agreement among most stakeholders the US needs “better, faster, affordable” development and acquisition of emerging technologies that will drive competitive […]
Highlights from Defense Innovation Unit’s 2021 annual report
Here are some excerpts from the Defense Innovation Unit 2021 annual report (I compiled the table below for your reading ease): In fiscal year (FY) […]
Acquisition headlines (1/24 – 1/30/2022)
Federal Trade Commission blocks Lockheed Martin’s acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne. (Space News) FTC statement: “Lockheed will use its control of Aerojet to harm rival defense […]
Does documentation eat up 50% of DoD acquisition dollars?
First, the overhead costs of manning the acquisition room are some place between 10 and 50 times what it would cost to proceed on a […]
Podcast: DoD, Silicon Valley, and American Dynamism with Katherine Boyle
Katherine Boyle joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to dive deeper into her stark warning on DoD’s relationship with the tech community. “After five […]
Software Acquisition Pathway meets a requirements roadblock from the Joint Staff
Sponsors utilizing the software acquisition pathway per reference III for software only will submit a Software-ICD (SW-ICD) to the Joint Staff Gatekeeper to assess for […]
Here’s how much in-house R&D the military services did in the 1960s
That was from a congressional hearing in July 1961.* I’m actually somewhat surprised that the Air Force performed upwards of 20 percent of their RDT&E […]
Acquisition headlines (1/17 – 1/23/2022)
Kendall warns against imitating Chinese hypersonic weapon efforts. (Defense Daily) ““We don’t have the same target set that they’re worried about so we have to […]
Three steps to help defense innovation break free from its shackles
Jerry McGinn and I provide three recommendations for the congressional commission on PPBE reform in a Defense News article: Be bold in vision. The DoD’s industrial-age […]
FFG-62, DDG(X), and the future of surface combatants
Here’s RADM Mark Montgomery (ret.) talking with Vago Muradian about the new Constellation-class frigate: Historically, the Navy either changed the HME — the hull, mechanical, […]
You can’t make decisions based on 40,000 pages of paper, McNamara was wrong
MCNEIL: … the budget system got pretty complicated under [Robert] McNamara. It took them years to wake up to the fact that he was not […]
AFWERX companies starting to transition, but jury’s still out scaling transformation
It’s been an incredible year for #afventures and #afwerx companies. While we’re still finishing our end of year reports, I’m thrilled to be able to share a preview of […]
Acquisition headlines (1/10 -1/16/2022)
US Air Force invests $60M in the R&D of the ‘world’s fastest supersonic airliner.’ (3D printing industry) “Awarded via the USAF’s AFWERX innovation arm, the ‘STRATFI’ funding […]
How should the Navy hedge their bets if carriers prove vulnerable?
Today the Navy has aircraft carriers, submarines, surface combatants, aircraft, and sensors under the sea and in space. Our plan to counter to China can […]