Make industrial mobilization cool again — or is it for the first time?
The tradition of the Department of Defense is to define a weapon system end item, then fund that end item and the supplier base through […]
Blog Posts
How the SDA’s space architecture comes together
In order to do missile tracking for the next generation missile threats — hypersonic glide vehicles, hypersonic cruise missiles — we need to do two […]
Air Force top priorities reflect a move away from stovepiped weapons
Back in June 2020, Air Force chief Charles Brown said his top priority was Joint All-Domain Command and Control. In November, Brown updated that slightly. […]
Roper on opportunity- vs. requirements-based contracting
Here’s Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper making a very nice distinction between a “requirements” and an “opportunity” approach to defense programs. At the Strategic […]
Defense budgets under a Biden administration
Republicans have historically supported a large defense budget, and most Democrats showed earlier this year that they don’t support deep cuts either when the party’s […]
Acquisition headlines
Aerospace companies wary of digital design revolution. “With a flattening budget topline (at best) and many competing Air Force investment priorities, it’s not at all […]
The state of blockchain in defense tech
The Committee is aware that distributed ledger technologies, such as blockchain, may have potentially useful applications for the Department of Defense, which include but are […]
Podcast: Intellectual Property in Defense Contracts
In this special episode of the Acquisition Talk podcast, we listen in to a great conversation on intellectual property in defense. The panel is moderated […]
Transcripts: Intellectual property in defense contracts
GMU Intellectual Property Webinar, Nov 5 2020 Links: Video of the event. Listen to the audio on Acquisition Talk. Here’s a write-up. Moderator: Jim Hasik […]
Are Appropriators blocking defense transformation?
I recommend reading a nice Breaking Defense article, Senate Appropriators Cut R&D To Buy More Weapons. The SAC-D recommended that the Air Force and Navy […]
Why I push back on the “colorless” appropriation for software
One of the hot topics in defense reform is the new Budget Activity 6.8 (or just 8), a “colorless” appropriation for Software and Digital Technology […]
Will Roper wants to end the “trickle down” economics of defense contracting
Let me quickly break some things down. When we entered into the late Cold War and systems for the military especially the Air Force became […]
The DoD acquisition is deterministic — it needs an overhaul
One of the things that the Department has an issue with is putting something out there really fast and really bad just because we need […]
How to hack the DoD innovation system — probably not serious
In a recent post, I argued that DoD programs require long-term predictions about costs and requirements that get locked in as a “baseline.” But once […]
Acquisition headlines (11/1 – 11/7/2020)
Submarine industrial base ready to grow — but only in Pentagon, Congress send the right signals. “… the supply base and the two shipyards struggled […]