B-21 stealth bomber update
The B-21 is intended to initially replace the 20 B-2 and 63 B-1 strategic bombers currently in the fleet. B-2s date from the 1990s; B-1s […]
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How are defense officials captured by industry?
Regulatory capture happens when Government officials bias policies in favor of the firms supposedly being regulated. Usually there is no overt corruption involved in capture. […]
To End the Reform Pendulum, Fix the Budget
After a 2009 law increased centralization of defense acquisition decisions, reform began to swing in the other direction starting around 2015. The new emphasis is […]
The innovator’s dilemma of weapon systems
Let’s say the Government has awarded R&D work to a contractor. During the course of the contract, the engineering team spontaneously generates new insight. The […]
How Google Works: acquisition review (part 1)
The book How Google Works, by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg, offers many insights in a post-industrial (or post-corporate) world. I’ll discuss the book’s ideas […]
Putin on US defense “mistakes and extra costs”
“It’s a typical mistake made by an empire,” Putin said. “An empire always thinks that it’s so powerful that it can afford some mistakes and extra costs. But mistakes and costs multiply, and a moment comes when they become overwhelming in both security and economic spheres.”
Is science slowing down? A dissenting opinion.
We are confronted with the fact that Moore’s Law has led to transistor density growing at 35% per year, creating a vast increase in the number of calculations that can be performed per second, for a constant dollar expenditure. Great! Then, we are told there are 18x more people working in transistor-related research today than in 1971.
How to save $1 trillion on defense spending
I was recently in an interesting round-table discussion where one gentleman was talking about a plan to cut $1 trillion of defense spending over ten years. He said there was interest on this subject from both the progressive left and the deficit hawk right. But how would you do it?
Is there really $125 billion in Pentagon Waste?
Imagine you’re the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and in walks a group of consultants who tell you that you can save $125 billion over five years if you act on their recommendations. You flip through their PowerPoint brief stacked with charts and buzz words like optimize, modernize, and agile enterprise.
Galambos on Innovation, Systems of Systems, and Logistics
Here is Jim Galambos on Voices from DARPA, talking about platform design and cost disease: What do we mean by system of systems? It’s really this […]
Broad Considerations for Entering the Defense Market
A few days ago I discussed the saga of the JEDI cloud computing contract, which engaged tech firms like Amazon, Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, and Google. […]
What can we learn from Eric Schmidt and apply to defense acquisition?
Xerox PARC came out of a similar structure [as Bell Labs]. Xerox at the time was a structural monopoly and not a legal one because […]
The “Valley of Death” and the PPBS in defense technology transition
DARPA and the service research labs achieve amazing results. Have you heard about electronics that will physically vanish on command to prevent adversaries from copying our […]
Remember the days when Congress didn’t earmark defense projects?
His business provided jobs in Dorsey’s district, and jobs were scarce. Pitcairn was delighted when Dorsey introduced a bill to provide $2 million to the […]
Leap to Disruptive Technologies: One Account of Many for Cost Disease
I recently wrote about the available evidence of cost disease in weapon systems acquisition. How about causes of cost disease? There are many explanations relevant […]