Podcast: Navy shipyards and defense supply chains with Maiya Clark
Researcher Maiya Clark at the Heritage Foundation joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss her recent paper on the Navy’s public shipyards as […]
cost escalation
Three factors of escalating defense costs, and some figures to go with it
The cost of maintaining our armed forces at adequate strength to deter war has steadily increased in recent years. This upward trend is likely to […]
Cost escalation for defense labor and material — can it continue to grow so fast?
When we talk about procurement or support costs in the 2040 decade, obviously that’s a long way from now. Any sort of projection of a […]
The inflation slushfund
In analyzing DOD’s inflation budgeting system, we found that between fiscal years 1982 and 1986 the administration budgeted more than was needed to cover inflation, […]
Edward Keating on weapons sustainment and CBO analyses
Edward Keating joined me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to talk about a wide range of issues. He is the Deputy Assistant Director for National […]
What profits should we be willing to pay defense firms?
One of the long-standing problems has been the fact that the government tends to pay profit as a percentage of cost. If a contractor is […]
Defense Acquisition as a Cost Disease Sector: What’s the Evidence?
At any given time, you will have sectors where demand is growing faster than productivity (think of health care and education) and other sectors where […]