From the Editor-in-Chief T @
Email Nelson McCouch III
ArmyALT@gmail.com
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he relationship between the government and industry should not be like the child’s game of “telephone line.” If you remem- ber, telephone line is the game where you
start a word or phrase at one end of the room and each person whispers it only once to the next person, and so on, until it reaches the last person in the room.
Te whole point of the game, and the fun of it, is that what started as a perfectly sensible statement, such as, “Te Army needs new vehicles,” ends up, by the time the last kid in the room interprets it, transmogri- fied into something completely nonsensical like, “Te marmalade has hiccups.”
Of course, telephone line is just a game, but in defense acquisition’s not-too-distant past, it has seemed at times that breakdowns in communication between government and industry became their own version of that childhood game. Te government drafts a requirement for what it thinks is a simple system but doesn’t keep industry well-informed on what exactly it needs, and the end product becomes the stuff of congressional inquiries, vitriolic hearings and night- marish scandal.
Collaborating with industry is not tantamount to President Dwight Eisenhower’s ominous military- industrial complex, perceived by many as the informal alliance between the nation’s military and the defense industry and the source of Eisenhower’s concern that industry would gain undue sway over defense policy— prompting him to warn government to “guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence” by industry.
In fact, collaborating with industry is quite the oppo- site. If we don’t bring industry to the table more frequently and ensure that both parties have a clear understanding of what the buyer (the government) wants and what industry (the maker) can create, then we risk wasting hard-earned taxpayer money and not getting Soldiers the equipment they need to prevail against the enemy.
Working closely with industry is especially important if the Army is going to achieve DOD’s third offset strategy—its plan to maintain U.S. technological
superiority over its rivals by investing in specific research areas like man-machine teaming, autono- mous learning systems and semiautonomous weapon systems. To be successful, this must be done in sync with industry. Te National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017, currently awaiting reconcilia- tion between the House and Senate versions, gives the services flexible funding to encourage experimenta- tion and prototyping.
Partnering with industry is nothing new, but how we partner today versus how we did it just a few years ago is like night and day, partly because of changes imposed by DOD’s Better Buying Power (BBP) initiative, partly because of legislation (such as the FY17 defense autho- rization bill), and partly because of creative thinking by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology and our pro- gram executive offices. Tese initiatives and more are on full display in this issue.
Learn how a competitive nondevelopmental item approach to procuring the latest tactical radio tech- nology is saving the developer time and money while ensuring that the radio is compatible with govern- ment-owned waveforms, in “Network Marketplace: Open for Business” (in Acquisition). Also, big data is big business. See how government is partnering with the software industry to develop standards for interoperability, encourage vendors to develop appli- cations and avoid proprietary technologies in “Open Source Big Data” (in the BBP 3.0 section). Finally, get schooled with the U.S. Army Research Labora- tory’s (ARL’s) Open Campus experiment in “Ten and Now,” and see how the open campus builds on the relationships ARL has forged among government, academia and industry to develop technologies for the warfighter.
Te magazine’s sole purpose is to share information among acquisition professionals. Sometimes, its mis- sion is also to honor those who help us in that sharing, so be sure to take a look at “Recognizing the Best” on Page 167. As always, if you have questions, comments or just a great idea for an upcoming story, please send me a note at
ArmyALT@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
Nelson McCouch III Editor-in-Chief
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