Stockpiling critical minerals must happen early and at scale
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. […]
Blog Posts
Podcast: No time to waste for defense innovation with BMNT’s Pete Newell
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 […]
The need to rebalance DoD spending toward Procurement to deter China
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 […]
Acquisition headlines (1/16 – 1/22/2023)
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 […]
The problem of program manager tenure in DoD
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 […]
CSIS report on inadequate surge capacity for munitions
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. […]
DoD reprogrammed nearly $5 billion to increase munitions procurement in FY 22 in response to the Ukraine conflict
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 […]
FY 2023 shipbuilding plans-reality mismatch, analysis from CBO
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 […]
Acquisition headlines (1/9 – 1/16/2023)
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 […]
Update on the AFWERX FY 2022 annual report
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, […]
What economics and entrepreneurship can teach us about the acquisition process
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 […]
How to manage creative talent and lessons for DoD
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 […]
How the arc of American business history frames defense acquisition
The Pentagon and defense contractors are wrapped up in a broader macroeconomic arc that is crucial for understanding where DoD is today. Rise of the […]
Acquisition headlines (1/2 – 1/8/2023)
Josh Wolfe’s War: The Lux Capital founder blazes a controversial path in defense tech. (The Information) “Darting around Asia by boat, armed vehicle and helicopter, […]
Can you pass the “Ships Test?” Issues of defense requirements
Here’s an interesting slice of Lockheed Martin’s Inside Skunk Works podcast on something called the “ships” test: The bottom line is don’t add rules that […]