Busting up monolithic architectures, the problem of legacy systems, and a federated approach to JADC2
We use the term ‘mosaic’ in the context of what we call Mosaic Warfare. If you look at where the DOD has been heading, it’s […]
Blog Posts
Why is defense innovation so slow?
If a clever engineer imagines a new weapon for the Air Force, and if the research-and-development office specializing in that class of weapons approves of […]
Acquisition headlines (10/11 – 10/17/2021)
Ex-Air Force tech boss eviscerates Pentagon for already losing the AI race against China. (The Drive) “Among various complaints leveled at the U.S. military’s approach […]
Reverse innovation, allied partners, and getting more bang for the buck
Consider an American company with a good-better-best product lineup with 80-90-100% performance at 80-90-100% pricing. When seeking to sell in an emerging economy, like India, […]
Does blackboard economics translate to defense decisions?
Here’s an indication of the kind of thinking that predominated the post-WWII world, as expressed by Alain Enthoven who was ASD Systems Analysis in 1966: […]
Risk mitigation and the question of Chinese anti-stealth radar
Here’s the excellent Chad Millette, the chief learning officer at Space System Command, on LinkedIn: Eric Lofgren, you suggest in reference to the story about […]
Podcast: A clean-sheet approach to Space Force acquisition with Cynthia Cook and William Shelton
RAND researchers Cynthia Cook and William Shelton joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss their new paper that takes a fresh look at […]
Acquisition headlines (10/4 – 10/10/2021)
IT spend expected to trend up, acting DoD CIO says. (FCW) “The Defense Department’s IT spend has risen steadily in recent years, with an approximate 16% increase […]
Securing the MRAP by James Hasik pulls the curtains back on the inside story
There’s a new book, published last month, about one of the most important defense acquisition stories of the last twenty years: James M. Hasik, Securing […]
DoDIG heaps praise on use of middle-tier rapid acquisition
DoD acquisition personnel effectively leveraged the MTA [middle tier of acquisition] pathway for all 11 of the programs we reviewed to rapidly develop prototypes and […]
Transformations in defense budgeting — from BA 8 to portfolios
Congress is looking to slightly expand the new appropriation for software, BA 8, from 9 pilot programs to 12. Jared Serbu has a great article […]
Did the 5000-series lead to longer cycle time for aircraft development?
Mosaic warfare is a concept that evolved over the last 5 or 6 years, both at DARPA but also by folks like Dan Patt and […]
Acquisition headlines (9/27 – 10/3/2021)
Raytheon ends air-launched hypersonic vehicle test drought. (Aviation Week) “A demonstrator for a hypersonic missile flew faster than Mach 5 for 300 nm above 60,000 […]
The subjectivity of project planning
If I think of myself as an engineer, some of my time is debugging and thinking about what to write. But [the 10x engineer] would […]
Why have companies opted out of government contracting?
The issue that Jeb and I got started with in puzzling over was the question of Pentagon acquisition and the ways in which Pentagon acquisition […]