Year-to-year stability of munitions procurement funding
Yesterday, I discussed how munitions procurement funding changed between the President’s Budget request, Congressional enactment, and actual execution. Today, I want to briefly touch on […]
Programs
Are munitions really “bill payers” for the rest of defense?
One of the lines often heard is that munitions accounts are “bill payers” for other lines, particularly weapons platforms like vehicles, aircraft, and ships. Former […]
Analysis of ammunition procurement FY 1999 – FY 2023
In a previous post, I gave an overview of Munitions and Missiles overall and dipped into a little of the data on missiles and equipment […]
Data on DoD munitions and missile procurement: FY 2001 to FY 2023
Below are a few charts base on DoD’s procurement data from the P-1 docs FY 2001 to FY 2023. The dollars are normalized to FY […]
The need to rebalance DoD spending toward Procurement to deter China
The excellent Pete Modigliani had an interesting post recently on the proportion of RDT&E and Procurement in defense budgets. In the 1980s, Procurement was nearly […]
FY 2023 shipbuilding plans-reality mismatch, analysis from CBO
Eric Labs at the Congressional Budget Office provided an interesting presentation at the 2023 Surface Navy Association’s national symposium. He finds that in every year […]
Update on the AFWERX FY 2022 annual report
Here are some excerpts from the Air Force AFWEX annual report for FY 2022: AFVentures is delivering more awards faster than ever to small businesses, […]
Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) FY 2023 update
Matt MacGregor had an interesting post on the state of DoD innovation funds, but the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) was a bit more difficult […]
How were projects selected for the APFIT fund to field innovative tech?
The Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies (APFIT) fund was one of the bright spots from FY 2022. It provided $100 million to […]
Precision guided munitions pruduction is totally inadequate
The Pentagon is rebalancing its portfolio of PGMs away from short-range weapons used for counterterrorism operations toward long-range weapons that can be fired from standoff […]
Sources of defense tech transition funding
Here are some excerpts from the Data section of our newest report, Execution Flexibility and Bridging the Valley of Death. First, we have a figure […]
Was the SR-71 produced at a lower cost than the F-35?
Here is more the Hermeus Podcast episode with with former Air Force pilot and general Robert Behler on the SR-71. He provides some management lessons […]
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 […]
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 […]
Getting the facts confused on commercial items
Foe to monopolist power Matt Stoller provides some comments on acquisition policies in Nancy Pelosi, China, and the Slow Decline of the US Military. He […]