Podcast: Big questions in defense acquisition with Col. Bryon McClain
I was pleased to speak with Colonel Bryon McClain on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss the biggest questions facing the defense acquisition system. He […]
contracting
Podcast: How innovation really works with Anne Marie Knott
Anne Marie Knott joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss her book How Innovation Really Works. She is a professor teaching strategy and […]
Kill chains vs. kill webs
Software-defined tactics are the key to quickly adding capabilities to different assets that are supposed to work together. It’s kill chain vs kill web for […]
Contract challenges for modular open systems
Typically, a small percentage of the overall profit on a major defense system comes from software development. At the same time, the future upgrade and […]
Is small business hurt by industrial mobilization? Lessons from WWII.
As a result of the impact of the gigantic national defense and war programs on our American economy, small business enterprise in the United States […]
A primer on progress payments: impact of increase from 80% to 90% for COVID-19
Recently, the Pentagon announced that it will increase progress payments to bolster contractor cash flow during the COVID-19 crisis. For small businesses, progress payments increased […]
The debate on OTs and whether they are going to non-traditional contractors
… some observers question whether OTs are effectively bringing nontraditional contractors into the defense marketplace. A DOD Inspector General report examining other transactions from FY1994-FY2001 […]
The upside of capture
In a previous post, I described how Luigi Zingales’ framework of regulatory capture also applies to the defense industry. I will here try to describe […]
The innovator’s dilemma of weapon systems
Let’s say the Government has awarded R&D work to a contractor. During the course of the contract, the engineering team spontaneously generates new insight. The […]
An auction trilemma?
These results imply an auction trilemma. Static, strategy-proof, or credible: An optimal auction can have any two of these properties, but not all three at […]
Strategies for R&D contracting
Parenthetically we may note that CPFF contracts might be used more effectively than they have been in R&D work. Rather than concentrating on the final […]
Podcast with Victor Deal on contracting and innovation
Victor Deal talks with me on the role of contracting, how the price of a screw can be worth the tank it goes on, the […]
The role of the contracting officer
Thus, contracting authority is fragmented. The project officer is responsible for the success of the project, while the contract officer is the legal representative of […]
A bureaucrat to be crushed: the story of Gordon Rule
When the company officials had been asked to leave the room, the admiral in charge of shipbuilding told Warner the contractor’s demand for an extra $10‐million on the spot and $4‐million soon afterward was reasonable and ought to be paid. But then a ruddy, expensively but conservatively dressed civilian interrupted. “Admiral,” he said, “over my dead body will you reform that contract and give them $10‐million. This is the goddamnedest thing I ever heard of, a contractor coming in and throwing a piece of paper on the table and saying that to the Navy.”