Defense acquisition official gives himself, military low marks
But John Young emphasized that 60 percent to 70 percent of the Pentagon's acquisition programs are run well.
A senior Pentagon official Thursday gave low marks to each of the military services' procurement organizations and said improvements must be made.
"I'm not happy with the business and my management is not happy with the business," Pentagon acquisition chief John Young said during a breakfast with reporters. "I can tell you, I've personally had this discussion with [Defense] Secretary [Robert] Gates. I know he knows we're all trying, but he wants to see a higher standard of performance."
Young, who is expected to be replaced by the incoming Obama administration, said he would not even give himself an A for his work.
"I'm not prepared to give anyone an A and I'm not sure I'm prepared to give anyone a B," he said.
The Pentagon has suffered a series of high-level program missteps over the last several years, compounded by scandal and what the Government Accountability Office has deemed to be gross mismanagement. Most recently, Young canceled the Army's Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter program because of severe cost overruns and schedule delays. But other problems persist, including cost increases on the Navy-run VH-71 presidential helicopter and a forced re-competition on the Air Force's aerial refueling tanker program.
But Young stressed that 60 percent to 70 percent of the Defense Department's acquisition programs are run well. The problem ultimately is about "discrete programs and whether they get set up with the right conditions from the beginning," Young said. "When those things fail, you end up with ARHs and all our other problem children," he added.
But Young emphasized that reforms launched during his one-year tenure as acquisition chief will take one to three years more to take effect. Among his pet projects, Young has encouraged the services to use independent cost estimates as a basis for program funding and to rely on competitive prototyping of new technologies. "I'm very confident that what we're doing is exactly the right thing to do," he said.