Are we overthinking the DoD’s valley of death problem?
Here’s an interesting exchange from the Feb 9, 2023 House Armed Services Committee hearing on the future of war between Representative Ro Khanna and Christian […]
budget process
JADC2 requires budget flexibility, LTG Dennis Crall says
We live with a set of acquisition rules as far as pace goes that probably fit the Cold War era very well. When you look […]
Two views of defense budget reform
The combination of congressional limitations and DOD inflexibility undermine any effort to transfer funds rapidly, from a hi-tech program that appears to be going nowhere […]
The extreme pain of DoD reprogramming
The length of time between the start of budget planning and execution strains any organization’s predictive capabilities. The process effectively asks the individuals and organization […]
The myth of program funding stability
So why is this so hard? For years, the acquisition community has been saying program and funding stability are essential to acquisition reform. To that […]
Podcast: Andrew Hunter on software-defined, hardware-based adaptable systems
Andrew Hunter, director of the defense-industrial group at CSIS, joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss a set of papers on adaptable systems, […]
Eisenhower’s appeal for increased efficiency and economy — the Single Manager Plan
Today, most of our defense funds are appropriated not to the Secretary of Defense but rather to the military departments. The Secretary of Defense and […]
Capt. Mark Vandroff (ret.) on people, process, and delegation
I was pleased to have Mark Vandroff speak with me on the Acquisition Talk podcast. He served 30 years in the US Navy before retiring […]
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 […]
Panel discussion on maximizing defense innovation
In this episode of Acquisition Talk, we’ll listen in on a panel discussion hosted by the Lincoln Network that focuses on defense acquisition, called, “From […]
Never underestimate the program budget’s impact
Never underestimate the impact of the program budget process.
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?
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 […]