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. […]
contracting
Are multiyear contracts really a super-saver in acquisition?
Bill Greenwalt and Mackenzie Eaglen advocate for greater use of multiyear contracting to help solve supply chain troubles and pricing in an inflationary environment. Here’s […]
How SOCOM makes price tradeoffs to accelerate contract delivery
Here is Paul Weisgarber and Noel Burke on the Air Force Contracting Experience podcast discussing their experience working with Special Operations Command (SOCOM) through the […]
Podcast: Aligning government contracts with agile software
In this episode of the Acquisition Talk podcast, I host an amazing panel on contracting practices for modern software with Florence Kasule (Director of Procurement, […]
The state of Army munitions and modernization priorities
Rep. Hartzler: The Army continues to insufficiently fund these [munitions] efforts in the base budget. Unfortunately, the president’s proposed budget for FY 2023 appears to […]
Podcast: Bringing startups and government together with Andrea Garrity
Andrea Garrity joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss how the government can build relationships with nontraditional companies. She is the Chief Growth […]
PPBE’s negative impact on innovation also extends to contracting
Here’s a slice from my new article in the May 2022 edition of NCMA’s Contract Management Magazine, How Defense Budgeting Stymies Innovation (gated). Iteration and […]
The thorniest problem facing program managers: long lead times
Two of the thorniest problems confronting PMs are: The length of time required to process procurement documents [and]… The length of time required to effect […]
Podcast: Commercial space, venture, and DoD with Jordan Noone and Jenna Bryant
I was pleased to have Jordan Noone and Jenna Bryant on the Acquisition Talk podcast to talk about how commercial companies in space and deep […]
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 […]
Cutting contract documentation by 90+ percent
Here is Air Force general Chapman at a 1971 appropriations supplemental hearing with DepSecDef David Packard, asking for additional funds to do prototyping including funds […]
The state of defense acquisition as 2021 draws to a close
Previously, I discussed the messaging from the Reagan National Defense Forum that “Time is running out with Silicon Valley.” It was intimated that major acquisition […]
Podcast: The next-generation of combat UAVs with Joseph Murray and Andrew Van Timmeren
I was pleased to have on the Acquisition Talk podcast Joseph Murray and Andrew Van Timmeren. Joe is the co-founder of Blue Force Technologies, a […]
Why have companies opted out of government contracting?
The issue that Jeb and I got started with in puzzling over was the question of Pentagon acquisition and the ways in which Pentagon acquisition […]
GMU Playbook: Tailor the contracting approach to elements of the architecture
In this week’s blog post on Mason GovCon’s acquisition playbook study, we discuss a recommendation for government to partition contract tasks alongside the modular open […]