The 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) established the Section 809 Panel to address fundamental problems with how the Defense Department acquires goods and services to support its warfighters.
It recently released an interim report and supplement advocating in broad strokes for a host of improvements to the acquisition system to better streamline the process and increase industry offerings to the government.
In meeting with over 200 government and industry representatives, the interim report found that the acquisition system creates obstacles that make it unattractive for small and large businesses alike to offer their goods and services to the government. It explained that “the United States’ ability to maintain technological, military and economic superiority is being challenged,” as our adversaries are recognizing vulnerabilities in our forces and the ability to respond through modernization.
Thus, the Pentagon’s acquisition procedures must be improved to achieve “a degree of agility that DoD is not currently able to deliver,” it said.
To achieve this agility, the interim report recommended several improvements.
Keep reading this article at: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2017/7/25/panel-urges-acquisition-system-reform
Sitting on the powerful panel: several current or former employees of major military contractors including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and General Electric. Those corporations every year do billions of dollars of business with the Department of Defense — and have given more than $2.2 million in campaign contributions to members of the House Armed Services Committee, which is responsible for approving changes to DoD funding.
The goal is to provide lawmakers with a set of recommendations for legislative or administrative redress that will help improve the speed and performance of the defense acquisition system and open its aperture to the full array of available capabilities.
