The Pentagon’s procurement problems
Canceling programs isn’t the problem. Requirements and needs change, sometimes the technical approach just doesn’t work. The problem is that they aren’t canceled soon enough, or morphed into a better program. DOD usually buys the stuff it sets out to acquire, and sometimes “gets it good and hard” when it gets things on unforeseen terms.
Thomas Roberts
More on defense acquisition
I’m not sure “improvement” will get the job done. The process is so tedious on major weapons programs that the services have to build in capabilities they will need 10 years out because that is how long it takes to get to a production decision. There were some new rules written in for the war procurement, but these seem to be fading away as bureaucracy takes back over. Did it really take $8B to develop the Comanche, or was this really a $2B development effort with $6B of bureaucracy and iterative testing processes added on?
will4567
For an example of correct and frugal spending look to the current Virginia class submarine program. GE-Electric Boat and Ingalls Shipyard have combined their assets to come up with a sound design/procurement/construction program, which has reduced costs enormously while actually speeding up the acquisition of the boats.
Sharkey
The price of an F-35
I agree that it’s a terrific waste of money. The problem is that production has been spread among all 50 states, making it politically impossible to cut, especially in this environment. Even if the number of aircraft were to be cut, price guarantees would kick in, so as to compensate the contractors. In 10 or 15 years, we’ll be selling the F-35 to a more extended network of foreign counties and we’ll place those aircraft into the “threat inventory,” so as to justify another even more costly procurement.
Roger Thornhill
NSA in the cloud
When DOD tries to compete with industry and duplicate what already exists, they end up with avoidable failures as seen with DISA’s NECC, costing the tax payer $300M, and Army INSCOM’s REDDISK, built on GovCloud and costing hundreds of millions in high-risk development and putting a light on unfettered conflicts of interest. Real IT innovation is driven by a $3.8 trillion global IT market, of which DOD represents just half of 1 percent. It’s time to let industry mature these investments so they can become commercial grade solutions.
John Weiler
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