Does the US still have 50% of major warships, and thus command of the sea?
Command of the sea was defined as concentration of naval power, in which one nation possessed roughly 50 percent of the total relevant warships owned […]
Blog Posts
Time is running out for DoD with Silicon Valley
To those at Reagan National Defense Forum #RNDF, if there’s one BLUF you take away from the weekend, you should know: Time is running out […]
All that acquisition reform, and scaling programs still looks like the old system
When we think of alternative acquisition, that tends to be other-transaction authority and middle-tier acquisition. For [Jonathan] Etherton, these prototyping mechanisms amount to a […]
Acquisition headlines (12/13 – 12/19/2021)
The US military’s future: waves of killer drone swarms. (1945) “300-Plus Swarm Drones Just Flew In This DARPA Test: One drone armed with a missile or a bomb can […]
Palmer Luckey on rapidly fielding counter-UAS
Here’s a very interesting story from Palmer Luckey, co-founder of Anduril, at the 2021 Reagan National Defense Forum. There was an event where we were […]
Does acquisition depend too much on assumptions, not enough on accountability?
James Roherty’s classic 1970 book, The Decisions of Robert S McNamara has a pair of interesting discussions on the takeover of systems analysis on military […]
Podcast: Injecting tech in today’s weapons with Maj. Gen. John Ferrari (ret.)
I was pleased to have John Ferrari join me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss a wide range of issues facing DoD’s ability to […]
Why does DoD often take 10-15 years to deliver “big juicy targets”?
DoD still operates with enterprise processes and management practices designed around programs from 60 years ago. These program-centric constraints drive longer timelines, fewer quantities, and […]
Acquisition headlines (12/6 – 12/12/2021)
Electric Sky wins DARPA grant to work on focused power beaming system for drones. (Geek Wire) “A startup called Electric Sky says it’s begun building its […]
Is interoperability coming together for space systems?
Here’s a good bit from Ben Hilburn of Microsoft Azure talking about examples of interoperable standards on the Constellation Podcast: Taking perhaps a more recent […]
Commercial tech, “fast follower” strategies, and a framework for rapid acquisition
Here’s a flash talk with DIU’s Mike Brown at the Aspen Security Forum: There are so many innovations in the commercial sector that could be […]
DoD provides some relief for small/nontraditional contractors
Effective immediately, the list of exceptions to certified cost or pricing data requirements at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.403-1(b) is expanded to include contracts, subcontracts, […]
Is DoD’s top talent problem the fact it won’t empower engineers?
One of the unique things about top technology cultures, you know, when Apple wanted to do something new, they actually had a rule that it […]
Acquisition headlines (11/29 – 12/5/2021)
White House taps former Air Force official to run Pentagon acquisition. (Defense News) “William LaPlante, the president and chief executive of Draper Laboratory, will be […]
The role of line and technical officers in the Navy
When Congress established that position, it was clearly understood that the Chief of Naval Operations – the Navy’s highest-ranking military officer – was subordinate to […]