The pendulum of reform swings back-and-forth
A few days ago I argued that the Melvin Laird and David Packard reforms of 1969-1971 were not a great break from the policies of […]
Politics
The moral foundations of defense acquisition
Our ability to empathize and therefore sympathize with others is also diminished when hard is counterfactual in nature. Suppose B undertakes an act that does […]
The supreme irony of the managerial-minded
When diversity increases, unit costs must also increase, because of all those different spare-parts and training needs. But less standardized military forces are more resilient. […]
What is the slogan for acquisition reform?
At the Air Force “Spark Tank” innovation award — presumably titled after CNBC’s Shark Tank show — Mark Cuban asks a young innovative airman why […]
What causes of corporate welfare in the defense industry?
In a previous post, I discussed how it is critical to separate the idea of corporate welfare from efficient organizational design. In this post, I […]
Clearing obstacles to defense budget cuts
Several weeks ago I discussed various strategies for cutting $1 trillion from defense spending over ten years. In this post, I want to address the […]
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. […]
Where should Congress focus on weapons choice?
In terms of R. & D. projects, Congress by their own admission can only sample perhaps 10 to 15 percent of the hundreds of unrelated […]
The imperative of an acquisition theory
Conversations over several years tended to reinforce the impression that there was weak, but nonetheless real and expanding, disgruntlement with Defense Acquisition’s inability to provide an account of how it worked and a justification as to why…
Conditions for solving wicked problems
“Wicked problems” are problems that don’t just sit there and let you work on them. A tame problem is like an engineering problem or like […]
DOD scandal of the week: fraud involving billions
Federal prosecutors say the three men — all executives connected to defense contractor Anham FZCO based in the United Arab Emirates — were awarded an $8 billion contract to provide supplies and food to American troops in Afghanistan in 2012.
Wild ride on the Trump defense budget
It is interesting how fragile the DOD is with respect to small changes in the budget plans. We find strong push-back from defense insiders that modest cuts will lead to large risks. Either you scale back military operations or you cut investment in new systems …
Has $21 trillion gone missing?
One tip-off is the amount of Ocasio-Cortez’s “accounting errors” is far bigger than the actual Pentagon spending from 1998 to 2015, which was $8.5 trillion. In fact, it’s also far bigger than the amount the government has spent on national security since 1940 and, in all likelihood, in the nation’s history.
Questionable advertisement from defense industry
Arms manufacturers are spending millions of pounds a year promoting their brands in Britain’s schools, the Observer has learned… BAE Systems visited 420 schools across the UK last year and prepared lesson plans for children as young as seven.
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.”