Podcast: Next steps in acquisition reform with Dan Ward, Pete Modigliani, and Matt MacGregor
I was pleased to have an impressive trio from MITRE join me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss the future of acquisition reform. Dan […]
Blog Posts
Who spends more? The debate over military budgets in the US and China
In essence, the CIA was using what today we would call PPP to compare the budgets of the two superpowers, a concept that Bill Greenwalt […]
Acquisition headlines (6/7 – 6/13/2021)
The pitfalls of factoring in security and CMMC costs. (National Defense Magazine) “Up to [CMMC] Level 3 will be included in your indirect rates. So, […]
Is the US military in a bubble, unfit for attrition warfare?
If you look back historically, there are very few situations where one side has a big enough technology advantage that it actually causes a win-loss […]
Was the Soviet aircraft industry marked by profit-motive capitalism?
One of the major differences [in Soviet aerospace industry] is that the research institutes, the design bureaus, and the manufacturing plants are all under one […]
Diversity of funding criteria is key to accelerating S&T
Tyler Cowen: How would you improve error correction mechanisms in the world of science — Western science? David Deutsch: … I think the present system of […]
CBO compares cost of UAS and manned ISR aircraft
Conventional wisdom holds that UASs cost less than manned aircraft because they do not need life support equipment such as oxygen systems, cabin pressurization, and […]
Acquisition headlines (5/31 – 6/6/2021)
Navy tries to cut four littoral combat ships to save $186M in FY 22 budget. (USNI News) “… the second Independence-class aluminum trimaran USS Coronado […]
GAO investigates why agency funds get cancelled
About 1.6 percent of the total available budget authority government-wide was cancelled from fiscal year 2009 to fiscal year 2019, averaging $23.9 billion per year… […]
The birth of independent government cost estimation
Since the basic ingredients of the cost analysis concept being promoted were (1) independence from program proponent pressures and (2) use of historical, parametric relationships, […]
Podcast: Air Force fighters now and into the future with Mike Benitez
Mike Benitez joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to talk about the current state and future of the Air Force fighter inventory. He discusses the […]
How formal relational contracts can improve defense outcomes
When Dell originally selected FedEx, in 2005, to handle all aspects of its hardware return-and-repair process, the companies drew up a traditional supplier contract. The 100-page-plus […]
Acquisition headlines (5/24 – 5/31/2021)
The Department of Defense releases the President’s FY 2022 Defense Budget. (DoD) And don’t forget the Acquisition Costs by Weapon System. New DOD budget seeks […]
The story of US Air Force’s Kessel Run
During a tour in the Central Command’s Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) in Qatar, the Defense Innovation Board (DIB) with Chairman Eric Schmidt (the thenexecutive […]
The false efficiency of systems analysis
The revolutionary manner in which McNamara made his decisions… transformed the “expert” career bureaucrat into the “novice” and the “inexperienced” political appointee into the “professional.” […]