MAKING ACQUISITION RAPID: A PRACTITIONER’S VIEW


• Starting small also attracts innovative small corporations to the effort, rather than large defense contractors with their high overhead costs and bureau- cracy. BBP 3.0 advocates


increasing


small business participation to promote effective competition because it works. Corporate partners do not expect big payoffs from small efforts, so fees and overhead are typically smaller.


• Smaller efforts keep testing require- ments right-sized and typically do not attract disproportionate oversight from the test community.


• Smaller efforts are less likely to expe- rience


serious bloat and become a


target in the constant budget wars. Examples of programs that became too big, attracted too much attention and were then canceled are legion in the Army, such as Future Combat Systems, Comanche and Crusader, to name just a few. In a time when mammoth hunt- ing is a fashionable sport, it is easier to not be a mammoth.


LT. COL. JOEL D. BABBITT is the product lead


for Wideband Enterprise Systems’ project Satellite


Systems, under the PEO for Enterprise Information


manager


for Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He previously served as the product manager for WIN-T Inc 1 and for command, control, communications, computing and intelligence for a unit under the USSOCOM. He holds a master’s degree in computer science from the Naval Postgraduate School and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Brigham Young University, and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He is Level III certified in program management, Level II certified in engineering and Level II certified in information technology. He is a Project Management Professional and a member of the Army Acquisition Corps.


• With a limited fielding, once an effort is successful, other potential customers will clamor for the solution, which will drive up the basis of issue. Te product will grow naturally, instead of implod- ing under excessive expectations.


CONCLUSION Acquisition does not have to be large, slow and ponderous. However, mak- ing it small, fast and agile is a conscious decision that must be made up front in the framing of a program. Do not be afraid to stay small and agile and to take responsibility for making your system a success. Your customers—our Soldiers— will appreciate the results.


SIMPLER SOLUTION Soldiers from the 82nd ABN erect a Terrestrial Transmission Line Of Sight (TRILOS) radio during an expeditionary network demonstration in March 2015 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. TRILOS provides 12 times the bandwidth of the legacy capability in a smaller package. It is easy to set up, and advanced signal Soldiers are not needed to operate the system. (Photo by Amy Walker, Program Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications – Tactical Public Affairs)


40


Army AL&T Magazine


July-September 2016


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