DOD Acquisition Trends
Set the Tone for the Acquisition Workload Figure 1
Gulf War, 1990-1991
SOURCE (Workforce Data): DOD Inspector General (IG) Report D-2000-088, Feb. 29, 2000; and DOD IG Report D-2006-073, April 17, 2006
SOURCE (Budget Data): Annual Defense Reports, available at
http://www.dod.mil/execsec/ adr_intro.html
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Somalia Haiti
Bosnia/ Kosovo
9/11 Terroritst Attacks,
Operation Enduring Freedom
Operation Iraqi Freedom
FY96 NDAA required DOD to reduce its acquisition workforce by 25% by the end of FY00
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Fiscal Year
DOD Procurement Budget Acquisition Workforce
700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0
fact, the standards that the Army uses to bring in an intern today, with a GPA of 3.5, are pretty high,” he said.
We are looking for the best and the bright- est individuals who are motivated, consider public service to be their higher calling, and understand that the acquisition pro- fession they undertake will afford them opportunities to lead early in their careers. We are looking for people who bring basic skills and knowledge, preferably with the right kinds of degrees and advanced degrees in areas that are acquisition- related. They will be performing jobs such as program analysts, cost analysts,
cost estimators, and contracting officers. Once we get the best talent, we ensure that we train, educate, and develop that talent so our future leadership will con- tinue to instill the high standards of the AL&T Workforce. They will eventually become program managers, engineers on major information and weapon systems programs, and life-cycle logisticians.
If you look at the majority of interns we’ve hired using Section 852 fund- ing, they’ve been in the contracting field. Overall, the progress has been dramatic. As of June 1, the Army had hired 1,370 new acquisition professionals, including
809 for the contracting field and 561 in other acquisition career fields (See Fig- ure 2). We haven’t just used the growth initiative as a tool to bring on people; we’ve also created several interesting and targeted pilot programs. We’ve supported a Science and System Engineer program at the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command that has proven very successful. Its focus is on bringing the “ilities” skills—reliability, maintainability, and availability—back to that community. The engineers who perform those functions must understand them thoroughly. That was a skill set we had stopped focusing on over time, but
A S C . A RMY.MI L 127
CAREER CORNER / USAASC PERSPECTIVE
Acquisition Funds Obligated (Billions of $)
Acquisition Workforce (Thousands)
1990
1993 1994 1995
1998
2001
2003
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