The Defense Department is parsing out exactly how it will split one of its biggest and most infamous sections after Congress mandated the division last year.

The Pentagon is doing preliminary work on splicing its acquisition office into two distinct areas: research and engineering, and day-to-day business acquisitions, said Mary Miller, acting assistant defense secretary for research and engineering during an April 18, 2017 speech at a National Defense Industrial Association event in Washington.

Part of that work includes assigning distinct responsibilities to each new office. DoD is now picking out actions that were once housed under one roof to be passed off to their new acquisition office parents.

“We wanted to create two undersecretaries [for acquisition]. One, the undersecretary for research and engineering that is really focused on maintaining technology superiority across the globe. It is risk taking, it will do prototyping, it will do experimentation. It will allow and challenge the Defense Department each and every step along the way to think differently, to think large, to think future,” Miller said. “And then there was the undersecretary of acquisition and sustainment, which will focus on affordability, efficiencies, getting things to the warfighter faster and making sure it is the right things.”

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/acquisition-policy/2017/04/dod-splitting-responsibilities-two-new-acquisition-offices/