Stockpiling critical minerals must happen early and at scale
Here’s an excerpt from the War Production Board’s history of industrial mobilization for World War II, Industrial Mobilization For War: Volume 1 Program and Administration. […]
competition
Podcast: Getting weapons into production with USD A&S Bill LaPlante
The Undersecretary for Acquisition & Sustainment (USD A&S) Bill LaPlante joined us at the 2022 Conference hosted by George Mason University and Defense Acquisition University. […]
Podcast: Military uses of AI/ML in China and the United States
In this cross-over episode of the Acquisition Talk and China Talk podcasts, we have Greg Allen on to discuss progress in AI/ML, the military, China, […]
Anduril releases mission document: Rebooting the Arsenal of Democracy
Here is an interesting slice from Anduril’s mission document: Rebooting the Arsenal of Democracy. In the early 1960s, under the direction of then Secretary of […]
What’s missing from analysis of competition in the defense industry?
Since the 1990s, the defense sector has consolidated substantially, transitioning from 51 to 5 aerospace and defense prime contractors. As a result, DoD is increasingly […]
Does efficiency in weapons acquisition equate to the absence of industry profits?
Clearly, efficiency in the conduct of weapons programs is a desirable objective… What do we mean by efficiency in this context? There is a tendency […]
When can DoD get by without competitive prototyping?
Pierre Sprey testifies before Congress in a 1971 hearing “Weapon Systems Acquisition Process.” … if we cannot afford to execute a program under competitive prototype […]
DoD’s attempt at rational calculus may be the height of folly
It is, therefore, an obvious and “rational calculus” to employ a pragmatic and experimental procedure – that is, a policy of redundancy which permits several, […]
Why cost accounting does not guarantee efficiency
But accurate accounts will not guarantee efficiency. Even if — as is unlikely to be the case [Sourwine 1993; 1994]– the service supplier’s financial and […]
Podcast: Intellectual Property in Defense Contracts
In this special episode of the Acquisition Talk podcast, we listen in to a great conversation on intellectual property in defense. The panel is moderated […]
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 […]
Will Roper wants to end the “trickle down” economics of defense contracting
Let me quickly break some things down. When we entered into the late Cold War and systems for the military especially the Air Force became […]
Podcast: An aviator’s perspective on AlphaDogfight, NGAD, and beyond with Ryan Fishel
Ryan “Stinger” Fishel joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss the future of the fighter aircraft community. Ryan is an F-15E pilot for […]
What Palantir and Lockheed’s financials say about the GovCon business
Here’s a good piece from Simply Statistics on Palantir: At first glance it seems their doing pretty well. Their gross profit (Revenue – Cost of […]
Role of competition in the economy and in government
In the private economy other competing firms can duplicate or take different points of view about the nature of desirable products. But there are not […]