The Pentagon’s first comptroller was against merging the armed forces
In 1972, Jerry Hess interviews Wilfred McNeil, the Department of Defense’s Comptroller for the first five Secretaries of Defense: HESS: What were your views on […]
History
How McNamara’s top-down structure was flipped, but equally insidious forces prevailed
Taking the place of the Draft Presidential Memorandum was a new document called the Program Objective Memorandum (POM), through which the services could outline their […]
Neglect of small business at the start of WWII
… little actual headway was made in 1940, primarily because the Army and Navy field procurement officers had been sharply reminded, in the course of […]
Is it time for bold changes to weapon systems? Lessons from Germany’s WWII experience
The success of the Nazi drive across Europe proved what the military of other nations had long suspected: that the complete disarmament of Germany after […]
Agile development isn’t new to defense, it was just cast out by the “whiz kids”
It seems clear that the reciprocity of innovation and requirement is unusually important during the period when demonstrations of feasibility are being attempted. The character […]
We can have competition in the most expensive weapons
I think it is terribly important, that the Department of Defense always have the option to buy something else… they should keep their options open… […]
Has bargaining power flipped from government to contractor?
… the government paid for much of the industry’s equipment and physical plant, normally a private-sector responsibility. Thus, during the Korean War, taxpayers financed more […]
What Elon Musk would do over in the Starship design
Irene Klotz: In hindsight, if you were doing this all over again is there anything you would’ve done to make the path shorter? Elon Musk: […]
Should government perform 30 percent of development in-house?
My distinguished colleague from New Mexico, Mr. Runnels, asked the Defense witness, “Who made this decision to put it-the level of R. & D. to […]
Rickover explains why government has so many meetings and reviews
The recent DSARC review of the Navy’s reprogramming request of $23 million for the turbine-electric drive submarine is a typical example… Why then did it […]
Inducing contractors to maximize within a budget constraint
During World War II, there was more to accomplish than there were resources at hand. The attitude of contractors was, “How much can we do […]
Schriever, the Atlas ICBM, and the question of concurrency
In July 1954 the Scientific Advisory Board had recommended developing an alternative missile to the Atlas. This recommendation was motivated by fear that the pressurization […]
Technical progress requires a political process assuming diverse and legitimate interests
It is seldom contended that politics and technology are not separate endeavors and, indeed, that politics is not primary. But if the distinction is to […]
Armen Alchian’s radical proposal for military R&D — will we ever take heed?
When analyzed together, they confirmed the hypotheses that Armen Alchian had first made in 1953 about the dangers of applying systems analysis to weapons acquisition […]
What are the thorniest problems confronting Program Managers?
Two of the thorniest problems confronting PMs are: The length of time required to process procurement documents [and]… The length of time required to effect […]