Costs, requirements, and the development of the jet engine
Here’s an excerpt from Robert Perry’s 1967 paper, “Innovation and Military Requirements: A Comparative Study.” In it, he finds that one of the inventors of […]
Blog Posts
Case study on the Joint Rapid Acquisition Cell (JRAC)
After the start of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, each of the services and Central Command established processes for dealing with urgent requirements on the […]
Making it easier to do business with allies and scale new tech
Jerry McGinn and Bill Greenwalt spoke with Vago Muradian on the Defense and Aerospace Report on building industrial resilience. First up is Jerry — executive […]
Acquisition headlines (8/22 – 8/28/2022)
As Enterprise’s keel is laid, Navy and industry advocate for another aircraft carrier ‘block buy.’ (Breaking Defense) “The Enterprise (CVN-80) and the ship to follow […]
Middle Tier of Acquisition and what types of decisions merit going fast
Here are some slices from Annie Duke, world series of poker legend, discussing her new book on the a16z podcast, “How to Decide.” … we […]
Epirus’ CEO on high powered microwaves, valley of death, and working with primes
Here’s a conversation with Epirus CEO Leigh Madden on the DefAero report with Vago Muradian. Epirus is building a software-define microwave system that can quickly […]
How metrics led to the deprioritization of delivering capability: DoD obligation rates
Here’s a slice of a paper from Col. Jesse Marsalis at National Defense University: The Negative Impacts of the Benchmarks. The benchmarks in question of […]
Gresham’s Law of Programming
Here’s a slice from the excellent Mark Mandeles’ book, The Development of the B-52 and Jet Propulsion. Between 1919 and 1926, the technical staff at […]
Acquisition headlines (8/15 – 8/21/2022)
Upstart Anduril Australia hopes to make 100s of large drone subs, ITAR free, CEO says. (Breaking Defense) “CEO and chairman David Goodrich told Breaking Defense […]
How Kessel Run was able to survive the bureaucracy’s attempts to squash it
Here’s just one segment from an excellent interview with Will Roper on the Defense Unicorns podcast with Rob Slaughter, who worked on software factory efforts […]
Congress pushes back on the critical munitions fund
Here’s former USD Comptroller Dov Zakheim on the status of a critical munitions fund at The Hill: Congress should reconsider Austin’s request to fund ‘critical […]
Air Force supply chains are not ready to surge for war
Here’s a slice from an Aviation Week article, USAF Logistics Chief Raises Urgent Warning On Surge Capacity: A recent internal study shows more than nine out […]
SBIR mills, dual-use tech, and the case for reform with Ben Van Roo
I was pleased to have Ben Van Roo on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss his recent blog posts on the Small Business Innovation Research […]
Acquisition headlines (8/8 – 8/14/2022)
Air Force PEO looks to speed up program start, testing for Wedgetail. (Air Force Magazine) “Looking to get ahead of any potential problems, the Air […]
VC funding for defense & aerospace hits $10B in 2021
Here’s an excerpt from the Economist article, Can tech reshape the Pentagon? VC funding for American aerospace and defence startups tripled between 2019 and 2021, […]