Policy is not made once and for all; it is made and re-made endlessly
Policy is not made once and for all; it is made and re-made endlessly. Policy-making is a process of successive approximation to some desired objectives […]
Blog Posts
Can Roper break the link between R&D and production? The case of NGAD
“NGAD could take the form of a single aircraft and/or a number of complementary systems – manned, unmanned, optionally manned, cyber, electronic forms that would […]
Defense industry financial performance during COVID-19, third quarter update
Government contractors were not immune to the economic disruption brought on by COVID-19. There are more than 50,000 contractors doing business directly with the Department […]
How the US won World War II with economic policy
It is hard for us to imagine today how such an entrepreneurial spirit could co-exist with war mobilization, but one did. One reason, of course, […]
Where are the Democrats on defense policy?
With the presidential election happening today, the big question (for this blog) is how defense acquisition policy will differ based on the outcomes. My view […]
Some problems with the Future of Defense Task Force report
I. Using the Manhattan Project as a model, the United States must undertake and win the artificial intelligence race by leading in the invention and […]
Acquisition headlines (10/25 – 10/31/2020)
Report to congress on Constellation-class frigate program (FFG-62). ” Congress funded the procurement of the first FFG-62 class ship in FY2020 at a cost of […]
What ever happened to the DoD’s Better Buying Power?
Here is Steve Grundman discussing Ash Carter’s Better Buying Power rollout: “… the term incentives is this campaign’s refrain, appearing 13 times in the document […]
Senator Sullivan: DoD acquisition is one of our “biggest vulnerabilities… It’s hurting us”
Senator Tim Kaine. It might be productive for the committee to have hits and failures of recent acquisition programs and get the DOD to tell […]
Battleforce 2045 and whether the Navy can get to 500 ships
Dr. Esper’s roll out of Battleforce 2045 is pretty flawed because they don’t have the ability to be more specific about it because of OMB […]
Vannevar Bush argued for a wholly top-down approach to military R&D
Traditionally, the advanced military thinking on the improvement of weapons and on new methods of combat has been left to the lower echelons. The theory […]
Analysis: How DoD supports the COVID-19 response using Other Transactions
The DoD’s extensive contracting workforce is closely supporting Health and Human Services in executing Other Transactions (OT) contracts for COVID-19 under the joint Operation Warp […]
There’s no “value” in Earned Value Management
The problem here is that EVM is based on a detailed and accurate “plan” at the start of the initiative. And Agile avoids that detailed […]
Acquisition headlines (10/18 – 10/24/2020)
Cheap drones vs. expensive tanks: a battlefield game-changer? “The war has been most visibly characterised by ‘kill cam’ footage of drones attacking armoured fighting vehicles, including […]
Yes, America’s military budget process is terrible
Central planning did not work any better in the Pentagon than it did in the Soviet bloc. Not that we were not warned. The problem […]