Senate leaders call for more predictability in shipbuilding, but is that the wrong lever?
Since the 1960s, 14 U.S. shipyards that construct ships for the Navy have closed, and three have left the defense industry. Only one new shipyard has […]
budget
Who spends more? The debate over military budgets in the US and China
In essence, the CIA was using what today we would call PPP to compare the budgets of the two superpowers, a concept that Bill Greenwalt […]
Podcast: Air Force fighters now and into the future with Mike Benitez
Mike Benitez joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to talk about the current state and future of the Air Force fighter inventory. He discusses the […]
How can the Pentagon escape its Soviet-style acquisition system?
DoD’s FY21 President’s Budget Request organizes major weapon systems via nine Mission Area Categories (MACs), which can also be viewed as Strategic Capabilities (Figure 4). These provide […]
General Hinote: We ought to reimagine budgeting and oversight
That sector is going so fast that I don’t know what the specific solution set might look like in 2027 when we’re going to be […]
Progress in Skyborg and what’s holding back hardware
Mike Atwood (General Atomics): We’re really excited to see the formation of the Vanguard programs and realize his vision. The challenge we’ve had is though […]
Is Congress ready to rethink DoD oversight?
Dan Patt: Yeah. Speaking of a fresh look, we found it fascinating that in your report, you recommend changes to the budget and appropriations process to […]
How did the US Air Force become the smallest, oldest it’s ever been?
John Baum: Why do we now have the smallest, oldest Air Force in our nation’s history? What does this mean for the future? Mark […]
How the military almost lost all funding for basic research
What the Bureau of the Budget actually proposed when it made these reductions was that the military services get out of basic research entirely. Indeed, […]
Key to defense innovation — making the 21st century institutionally legible
Luke Constable: I don’t know how deep into accounting you are, there is a metric that’s really commonly used called EBITDA. And effectively, it is […]
Roper on opportunity- vs. requirements-based contracting
Here’s Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper making a very nice distinction between a “requirements” and an “opportunity” approach to defense programs. At the Strategic […]
Defense budgets under a Biden administration
Republicans have historically supported a large defense budget, and most Democrats showed earlier this year that they don’t support deep cuts either when the party’s […]
Are Appropriators blocking defense transformation?
I recommend reading a nice Breaking Defense article, Senate Appropriators Cut R&D To Buy More Weapons. The SAC-D recommended that the Air Force and Navy […]
Some problems with the Future of Defense Task Force report
I. Using the Manhattan Project as a model, the United States must undertake and win the artificial intelligence race by leading in the invention and […]
Battleforce 2045 and whether the Navy can get to 500 ships
Dr. Esper’s roll out of Battleforce 2045 is pretty flawed because they don’t have the ability to be more specific about it because of OMB […]