Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) FY 2023 update
Matt MacGregor had an interesting post on the state of DoD innovation funds, but the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve (RDER) was a bit more difficult […]
funding
How can future fighter aircraft be developed as a family of systems rather than vertical stovepipe?
Here’s Special Assistant to the SecAF Dr. Tim Grayson speaking at a recent Hudson Institute event hosted by the excellent Bryan Clark and Dan Patt […]
Here are the first picks on the PPBE Reform Commission
There seems to be broad agreement among most stakeholders the US needs “better, faster, affordable” development and acquisition of emerging technologies that will drive competitive […]
We’re never going to beat China with that kind of oversight!
Here is a Air Force head of contracting authority Maj. Gen. Cameron Holt discussing an interesting new proposal: [Line of Effort] 3 is called “owning […]
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 […]
Podcast: What’s the price of an AI/ML product?
As firms are finding out, the unit economics of AI/ML is not exactly like software. It requires more manual manipulation of data than one might […]
Why DoD needs more uncorrelated experiments
The thing that I will cry from the rooftops is that we just need more uncorrelated experiments. If you spend all the money in the […]
The debate over defining “legacy” weapon systems
How DoD defines “legacy systems” will drive tens of billions of dollars of investment, sustainment activities, and force structure. Everyone criticizes legacy systems, and in […]
To compete with China, DoD requires a new paradigm for budgeting
The U.S. military’s lack of adaptability also puts DoD at a disadvantage against its primary competitor, China’s People’s Liberation Army. Unlike the Pentagon’s attempt to […]
Gov’t funding is short-term, project-based, risk-averse, and prone to groupthink
One hypothesis I’d like to investigate is that we’ve gotten a little too centralized and monolithic in our funding. That is something to address. The […]