AT&L | The Contracting Education Academy

November 14, 2018 By cs

DoD acquisition office saw workforce reduction, job changes despite assurances

The Defense Department’s Office of Acquisition and Sustainment differs more from its predecessor than anyone expected when DoD set out to split its acquisition office and reorganize the pieces back in February.

**Flag of the Undersecretary of Defense**

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Kevin Fahey said the changes, including a large workforce reduction, have been in service of innovation and speedier acquisition.

For one thing, back in February, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Ellen Lord said that there were no plans for a workforce reduction. But Fahey said at the Professional Services Council’s Oct. 29 Vision 2018 event, as part of the reorganization, he cut his workforce by 40 percent.

Lord also said in February that the workforce would not see changes in title, series or grade. Again, what Fahey had to say after the fact differed significantly.

“Reorganizations are really hard, because everybody’s belief is ‘change is good, just leave me the hell alone,’ right? So, as you can imagine, all the people that were in [Acquisition, Technology and Logistics] were all for the reorganization, as long as you left them alone, and we couldn’t leave them alone,” Fahey said. “One thing I did, which is the right thing to do, but makes it harder, is in my organization, I changed every single job. I did that purposely. I didn’t want anyone to think that they were doing the same job they were doing before we reorganized. So everybody in my organization got a letter telling them what their new job was and who their new supervisor was, which I think was the right thing to do.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2018/11/dod-acquisition-office-saw-workforce-reduction-job-changes-despite-assurances/

July 23, 2018 By cs

The new structure for the Pentagon’s tech and acquisition offices

Pentagon leaders, already worried about the emerging technologies that will shape the next generation of war, have reorganized their leadership structure to emphasize quantum science, artificial intelligence and directed energy, Defense News has learned.

The new effort is a major restructuring for the two Pentagon offices that determine how the Department of Defense buys and develops weapon systems. Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan approved the changes in a July 13 memo, obtained by Defense News.

The 17-page document lays out the organizational charts for the offices of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment and the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, as well their responsibilities. The two offices were created Feb. 1, when Congress required the former Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) office to be divided. A potential organization chart was published in August, but the new document features significant changes, particularly on the R&E side.

**The chart above shows the organization of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. (click on image to enlarge)**

**The chart above shows the proposed organization of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Evaluation. (click to enlarge)**

Keep reading this article at: https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2018/07/17/revealed-the-new-structure-for-the-pentagons-tech-and-acquisition-offices

June 4, 2018 By cs

Here’s how the USAF is using its new purchasing power

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson has a new role: chairman of the board.

Now that Congress has largely put the services in charge of buying weapons, and removed much of the purview of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Wilson has put in place a new governing body to oversee hundreds of billions of dollars in purchases. The panel will meet for the first time next week.

“We’re going to try to be managing more at the strategic level,” Wilson said last Monday during a taping of Defense One Radio.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.defenseone.com/business/2018/05/air-force-secretarys-plan-run-acquisition-business/148506

April 16, 2018 By cs

Pricetag for Pentagon’s major weapon systems grows by 10 percent

The estimated cost for procuring the Pentagon’s major weapon systems increased 10 percent in 2017, growing from $1.74 trillion to $1.92 trillion in projected costs.

Those numbers were released as part of the department’s annual Selected Acquisition Reports. The SARs cover the 83 major defense acquisition programs that make up the largest programs managed by the former undersecretary of defense for acquisitions, technology and logistics.

However, that increase is not necessarily the result of problems within the acquisition programs, with the report starting that the cost increase is due in part to adding a new major program — the CH-47F Modernized Cargo Helicopter (CH-47F Block II) — to the SAR list, as well as increased quantities on various programs.

Only two programs had Nunn-McCurdy breaches, the government standard in judging unit cost increases, both from the Navy.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.federaltimes.com/pentagon/2018/04/03/pricetag-for-pentagons-major-weapon-systems-grows-by-10-percent/

March 26, 2018 By cs

Riding the acquisition innovation avalanche

You know a transformation is afoot when the Navy chooses as its acquisition chief a man known as “Hondo,” who is famous for an Iron Man exoskeleton project and a “Thunderdrone” UAV tournament.

Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition James “Hondo” Geurts is the father of SOFWERX, the U.S. Special Forces Command’s technology incubator, where the super suit and the drone coliseum are housed. SOFWERX is dedicated to fomenting creative collisions among divergent thinkers, and Geurts is the personification of the most expansive explosion of innovative in federal acquisition in a quarter century.

As Geurts often says, we are in the Age of Surprise. Timelines are shorter. The technology gap between the United States and its adversaries is disappearing.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2018/03/riding-acquisition-innovation-avalanche/146745/

The Defense Department’s Office of Acquisition and Sustainment differs more from its predecessor than anyone expected when DoD set out to split its acquisition office and reorganize the pieces back in February.

Pentagon leaders, already worried about the emerging technologies that will shape the next generation of war, have reorganized their leadership structure to emphasize quantum science, artificial intelligence and directed energy, Defense News has learned.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson has a new role: chairman of the board.

The estimated cost for procuring the Pentagon’s major weapon systems increased 10 percent in 2017, growing from $1.74 trillion to $1.92 trillion in projected costs.

You know a transformation is afoot when the Navy chooses as its acquisition chief a man known as “Hondo,” who is famous for an Iron Man exoskeleton project and a “Thunderdrone” UAV tournament.

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