Air Force contracting chief talks budget reform, Covid-19, and great power competition
This applies to Covid, it applies to emergencies and to great power competition: We have got to figure out a way to let Congress oversee […]
budget
Ratio of sustainment to acquisition costs — is modernization being crowded out?
The graph shows the four phases of a program’s cost over its lifetime: research and development (R&D), procurement, O&S, and disposal, with O&S considered the […]
Why are analysts complicit in cost and schedule growth?
I showed that for 10 projects for which a cost risk analysis had been conducted, the actual cost was greater than the 90th percentile for […]
Requirements, budgeting, and acquisition in the 16th Air Force
Here’s an interesting discussion on an Aerospace Nation episode with David Deptula and Commander of the 16th Air Force Lt Gen Timothy Haugh. The 16th […]
US policymakers must avoid the same mistakes with China that they did with the Soviets
US policy makers tend to have this view of Chinese technology policy as being long-range, strategic, and top-down. We know that the most successful parts […]
Podcast: Blockchain’s potential for government with SIMBA Chain’s Joel Neidig
Joel Neidig joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss how blockchain technology can support the military across a wide range of use-cases including […]
Is it time for bold changes to weapon systems? Lessons from Germany’s WWII experience
The success of the Nazi drive across Europe proved what the military of other nations had long suspected: that the complete disarmament of Germany after […]
New proposals for the military’s tech transfer problem
These two groups [military operators and lab technologists] have different cultures and values, and frequently speak different languages. To operators, risks are to be minimized […]
Consciously creating competition in government
What is the appropriate role of government in society? That’s the classical liberal question. And then what is the machinery of freedom that brings it […]
The Air Force’s eternal reluctance for attack aircraft
But while the Air Force considers whether it needs a light-attack capability, SOCOM Commander Gen. Richard Clarke said a light-attack platform is essential for its […]
Paul Romer on culture and technology: lessons for acquisition
Do you think that the distinction between growth at the frontier and catch up growth is always so well defined? So if you think about China, they seem to have innovations: how quickly they can build things; they have an autocratic government, but they’ve managed to keep reasonable stability and the public on board. Isn’t that kind of innovation like a technological innovation and their growth in a way is at some other frontier rather than being just catch up?