Can the Air Force scale small companies into a program of record?
Remember the dreaded “valley of death” in technology transition? The Air Force plans to bridge the valley by progressively scaling up its pitch days. A […]
Search Results for program budget
How should budget appropriations be reorganized?
Congress should reorganize appropriations titles (the “color of money”) to reflect the kind of life cycle a thing has, not what part of the life […]
Why managers pad budgets and build empires: the law of anticipated reactions
To some extent, the strength and security of an organization is associated with its size, the rank of its personnel, and the amount of funds […]
Static program baselines and rethinking contract mgmt systems
Traditional acquisition metrics can be a major problem for adaptable systems. The Earned Value Management System (EVMS) is a common tool for measuring progress in […]
Air Force vanguard programs — can they solve the transition problem?
Guided by strategic capabilities, this [transformational S&T] component will include a focused set of research programs called vanguards. Vanguard programs will advance emerging weapon systems […]
Stop funding new R&D under existing major programs, fund a prototype program
Here’s a good point from Craig Hooper over at Forbes: Given that research and development hard to fund these days, Navy innovation aboard ships and […]
The average defense program takes 10+ years to enter operations
Technology and threats are both evolving very rapidly. Our own acquisition system too often undermines our ability to get the warfighter what he or she […]
Does budget reform comply with the 10 rules for good reform?
Here is the insightful Peter Levine providing us 10 rules for reforming the Department of Defense: I’ve watched as every secretary of defense has sought […]
How the Army budget process works
Contrary to what one might expect from the budget process, most of the actual horse-trading happens at a higher level inside the Pentagon during a […]
The boarder wall and reprogramming authority in the DOD
While serving as undersecretary of defense (comptroller), I presided over DoD financial management during the dark days of 2013 when sequestration slashed funding for military […]
Why the zero-based budget is not effective
Following in the steps of the Army, which did a “night court” deep-dive look at its budget to identify about $25 billion in savings to apply towards […]
The issue of centralized control in defense budgeting
In assessing change many observers are inclined to stress the more dramatic shifts in policy or even the stated goals of policy. They are perhaps […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 …