UNDERSTANDING ACQUISITION: THE IDEA INTERNAL R&D PROTOTYPE OF DEATH FUNDRAISING MARKETING WAIT FOR NEW FISCAL YEAR
RELATED CONCEPTS
TO UNDERSTAND THE VALLEY OF DEATH, IT'S HELPFUL TO UNDERSTAND SOME RELATED CONCEPTS IN ACQUISITIONESE.
VALIDATED REQUIREMENT The Army buys virtually nothing without a validated requirement. These explain to Congress how the Army is spending its appropriations and they explain to the contractor what the Army wants, very specifically. Requirements come from needs expressed by commanders and they can also come from Army leaders looking to close capability gaps. The Army Requirements Oversight Council vets and validates them—or doesn’t. The Army likes capabilities to follow doctrine. This is a cultural thing—the Navy often experiments with capabilities and builds doctrine around new ones.
92 Army AL&T Magazine Fall 2021
FUTURE YEARS DEFENSE PROGRAM (FYDP) Often pronounced FIEdip or FIDdip. FYDP is essentially a database that represents DOD's “program” and financial plan—what DOD plans to do and how it's to be funded—over the next five years and as approved by the defense secretary. That program is divided by organizations, colors of money and major defense programs. FYDP is part of the planning, programming, budgeting and execution process and gets updated twice during that cycle. FYDP connects Congress's authorizations with specific military programs.
