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July 8, 2016 By AMK

Don’t learn the wrong lessons from rapid acquisition

Our enthusiasm must be tempered by an understanding of the wartime circumstances that made it work and the downsides that were accepted.

Johnathan WongEvery time the Marine Corps sent me back to Operation Iraqi Freedom, new and better equipment awaited: radios, armored vehicles, electronic jammers to foil roadside bombs. It was clear that the rapid acquisition policies created or updated for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were sending high-performing, technical systems to the battlefield much faster than conventional acquisition could. They helped me do my infantryman’s job better, and helped our force adapt to evolving threats in months rather than years or decades.

Sensibly, policymakers are trying to figure out how rapid acquisition ideas could help the conventional acquisition system perform better. Early this year, the Pentagon enshrined rapid acquisition by including a dedicated section on it in the latest regulations governing acquisition. The Air Force recently announced that it is procuring its new B-21 bomber through its rapid capabilities office, and the Navy is setting up a similar office to speed up acquisitions.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2016/06/dont-learn-wrong-lessons-rapid-acquisition/129332

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Afghanistan, Air Force, DoD, Iraq, Marine Corps, Marines, MRAP, quality, rapid acquisition, testing, transparency

April 11, 2013 By AMK

Top officers: F-35 essential, but procurement ‘constipated’

The top officers in the Navy and Marine Corps defended their most expensive program, Lockheed Martin’s troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, while acknowledging the way the Pentagon buys such weapons is not merely broken but “constipated.”

“There’s no alternative for the United States Marine Corps to the F-35B,” Commandant Gen. James Amos said at the opening session of the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space conference. “I want to make that crystal clear to everybody in the audience.” All the great aircraft of the past have gone through teething troubles in development, said Amos, a pilot himself.

“Speaking for the Navy,” added the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, “I need the fifth-generation fighter, and that [F-35] provides it, so we’re all in — but it has to perform. It has problems; it is making progress.”

“I do not at this point believe that it is time to look for an exit ramp, if you will, for the Navy for the F-35C,” continued Greenert, who in the past has damned the Joint Strike Fighter with similar faint praise.

Their commitment to the aircraft aside, both men acknowledged – in response to a pointed question from Reagan’s Navy Secretary, John Lehman — that the procurement process which produces systems like the F-35 is a mess. “The process is constipated,” said Gen. Amos. “It’s broke.”

Keep reading this article at: http://defense.aol.com/2013/04/08/gen-amos-adm-greenert-f-35-essential-but-procurement-consti 

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: accountability, acquisition, acquisition strategy, Marines, Navy, procurement reform

November 6, 2012 By AMK

Marine Humvees get a second life

Many wrote off the Humvee when Army and Marine Corps officials chose to double down on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program and scrap Humvee recapitalization plans.

However, budget realities have led the Marine Corps back to the Humvee as leaders realize they don’t have the funding to buy enough JLTVs to replace their Humvee fleet of 24,00 trucks. Right now, Marine officials expect to buy 5,500 JLTVs in 2017.

To make up for the gulf between current Humvee numbers and the planned JLTV buy, the Marine Corps will launch a Humvee improvement program. Marine acquisition leaders started a study to collect the research done in previous years by the Pentagon and industry to upgrade the Humvee.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2012/09/27/marine-humvees-get-a-second-life/

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: acquisition strategy, DoD, Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, Marines, upgrade

January 6, 2011 By AMK

Gates takes ax to Defense programs to end ‘culture of endless money’

Defense Secretary Robert Gates unveiled steep cuts to several pricey and deeply entrenched weapons programs last Thursday as part of sweeping reforms to the department’s budget planned during the next half-decade.

During an afternoon news conference at the Pentagon, Gates announced the Defense Department had identified a total of $154 billion in efficiencies over the next five years through cuts to overhead, improving business practices and eliminating troubled programs.

The service agencies will be allowed to keep and reinvest roughly $70 billion, though $28 billion from those funds would be directed to higher-than-expected operating expenses, including fuel, maintenance, health care and training costs.

The department also announced it would bring down the overall size of the U.S. fighting force by trimming the Army by 49,000 soldiers and the Marines by 20,000 starting in fiscal 2015. That decrease would be first for the armed forces since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The secretary stressed that the program decisions amounted to a reduction in the overall rate of growth at the department rather than a decline in total defense spending. “My hope is what had been a culture of endless money . . . will become a culture of savings and restraint,” Gates said.

On the chopping block is the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, an armored, high-speed amphibious assault vehicle that has been in the planning stages since the Reagan administration. The $14 billion program has experienced multiple testing delays and cost increases. Thus far, Defense has spent $3 billion on the project.

The Marines had expected to purchase 573 of the floating tanks, but on Thursday Gates terminated the program altogether in his planned 2012 Defense budget. Gates acknowledged this was a “controversial decision,” but he noted the department could not afford a program that would “essentially swallow the entire Marine vehicle budget.” Rather, the Marines will upgrade their existing fleet of amphibious vehicles.

“Despite the critical amphibious and warfighting capability the EFV represents, the program is simply not affordable given likely Marine Corps procurement budgets,” said Marine Corps Gen. James Amos. “The procurement and operations-maintenance costs of this vehicle are onerous.”

Some industry analysts believe the department is being short-sighted with the EFV decision. Loren Thompson, who runs the Virginia-based Lexington Institute, a defense think tank, argued there is no safer way to get Marines ashore than the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. “The bottom line is the Marine Corps either gets EFV or it loses a lot of men doing the mission the old fashioned way,” said Thompson, who serves as an adviser to several major defense contractors.

Gates also announced plans to delay by two years the Marine Corps’ version of the F-35 fighter jet because of significant testing problems. The secretary said the program, run by Lockheed Martin Corp., would be reviewed for the next two years to see whether it demonstrates increased reliability. If the program does not show improvements, it could face termination, Gates said.

The Army also canceled plans to purchase a surface-to-air missile defense system being developed by Massachusetts-based Raytheon Co.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stressed that the program cuts actually would “improve our readiness. We can do things smarter and more efficiently.”

The department also on Thursday elaborated on previously announced plans to eliminate $100 billion in overhead costs and inefficiencies from the Defense budget. The Air Force identified $34 billion in proposed efficiencies, while the Army and Navy found $29 billion and $35 billion, respectively, in potential savings.

Nonservice agency offices, including the Office of the Secretary of Defense, identified $54 billion in potential cuts through consolidating information technology support; a hiring and salary freeze; a reduction in generals, admirals and civilian executives; the elimination of hundreds of nonmandatory reports; and an increase in TRICARE health premiums for military retirees. In addition, a 10 percent reduction for each of the next three years in service support contracting is expected to save the department $6 billion, Gates said.

To take effect, the program cuts must still be approved by Congress, and top Republicans already are expressing skepticism.

These proposed cuts “are being made without any commitment to restore modest future growth, which is the only way to prevent deep reductions in force structure that will leave our military less capable and less ready to fight,” said Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “This is a dramatic shift for a nation at war and a dangerous signal from the commander in chief.”

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Defense proposals would be discussed as part of the normal budgeting hearing process. But he stressed the need for a new Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. “The Marine Corps needs a next-generation amphibious vehicle,” Levin said. “The nation needs us to build and buy that vehicle at a reasonable cost.”

Gates briefed the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services and Defense Appropriations committees on Thursday morning.

The Pentagon’s proposed budget for 2012, which includes funding for the wars, is expected to be $553 billion, or about $13 billion less than it had expected.

– By Robert Brodsky – GovExec.com –  January 6, 2011

Filed Under: Government Contracting News Tagged With: Army, budget cuts, DoD, Marines

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