Acquisition headlines
BAE Systems rallies after snapping up U.S. defense companies. “… it announced it was buying Collins Aerospace’s military global positioning system business for $1.925 billion […]
Blog Posts
French to U.S. on weapons development: How do you work with so many people?!?
Mr. Shapero: They [the French] make good aircraft, and they have also had disasters. But they do it much more cheaply than we do. Spending […]
Does category management push against small business?
The government’s going to move in the direction it wants regardless of industry feedback… The objective of category management is to get better pricing. By […]
Can open data improve procurement outcomes?
We examine how the increased accessibility of public purchasing data affects competition, prices, contract allocations, and contract performance in government procurement. The European Union recently […]
Has program budgeting failed the world over?
Program budgeting does not work anywhere in the world it has been tried. The reason for this failure can be deduced backward. What would it […]
How do cost and mgmt. systems create biases against innovators in DOD?
Many causes could be cited for the institutional bias against innovators – or what could be termed more broadly as entrepreneurs – in the Department […]
Do we still have faith that any conceivable weapon can be built?
Like most of their countrymen and contemporaries, American military leaders of the later 1940s concluded that almost any conceivable weapon could be built if one […]
Acquisition headlines
US Army cancels current effort to replace Bradley vehicle. Is Congess purposefully underfunding Section 804 MTA programs? “Last month, Congress hacked funding for the OMFV prototyping […]
How to maintain innovation in a large-scale enterprise
An organization like the cavalry in 1935 is an interesting example. You had a bureaucracy that used the horse to do the job. That was […]
What will military aviation look like in 2050? A lot like 2020?
On average, the Army’s aircraft are 14 years old, and the Department of the Navy’s are 16 years old; the Air Force’s aircraft, on average, […]
What do systems engineers wrongly assume?
On of the key mis-assumptions in modern Systems Engineering and Systems Analysis is that the total problem can, and frequently is, decomposed into subproblems, the […]
The most important unresolved aspect of acquisition reform
New guidance for middle tier acquisitions at the Department of Defense looks to clarify the authorities that procurement professionals can use. However, experts like Eric […]
Can the F-35 reach $25K per flying hour target by FY 2033? It depends…
It’s possible for the F-35 program to reach its target of $25,000 per flying hour, but only if there’s a substantial change… The F-35 […]
Russia’s military procurement with Richard Connolly
Dr. Richard Connolly joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss a wide range of issues, including Russia’s GPV modernization programs, the effect of […]
Acquisition headlines
The Story of China’s Aircraft Carrier Launch Is Flat Out Strange. A slice: “… the carrier was actually a rogue acquisition for the Chinese military […]