$ T
he Army will implement 63 of the recommendations put forth in the final report of an Army acquisition review that
was chartered by Secretary of the Army John McHugh.
Since 1996, the Army has spent more than $1 billion a year on programs that ultimately were canceled. Since 2004, that number has been between $3.3 and $3.8 billion a year—anywhere from 35 to 42 percent of the Army’s development, testing, and evaluation budget.
Those details and proposed solutions to improve the Army’s acquisition commu- nity are outlined in a report released July 21 by the Army.
The report, Army Strong: Equipped, Trained and Ready, is the result of the Army acqui- sition review McHugh chartered to look into the Army’s acquisition processes.
The panel that produced the report was co-chaired by Gilbert F. Decker, a former Army Acquisition Executive, and GEN Louis C. Wagner Jr., the now-retired for- mer Commanding General of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.
FOUR CHALLENGES In the report, Decker and Wagner say that the Army needs to continue to field the best equipment to Soldiers, but that there are four challenges to meeting that requirement. Chief among those chal- lenges is that core competencies of the requirements and acquisition community have eroded over the past 20 years and are “in urgent need of repair.”
The report says the number of personnel overseeing the acquisition process is rising, while the number of “qualified, account- able professionals charged to develop and produce the product” is going down.
Also a challenge, the report says, is the non- collaborative nature of the acquisition process; it cites “multiple opportunities for oversight staffs to question and chal- lenge requirements.” Approval time for major acquisition programs can run any- where from 15 to 18 months, the report says, and the challenges of synchroniz- ing the acquisition cycle with the budget cycle can mean that “program starts can occur two to three years after the opera- tional need was identified.”
The Army acquisition process “has proved ineffective and inefficient,” the report concludes, and well-intentioned steps to improve it have been “counterproduc- tive.” It goes on to say that “even with this laborious process, new weapon systems continue to enter engineering and manu- facturing development prematurely with technological risk, leaving a legacy of pro- gram cost overruns, reduced quantities fielded, and terminations.”
RECOMMENDATIONS More than 70 recommendations were put forth in the Decker-Wagner report to improve the Army’s acquisition process.
The Secretary of the Army wrote in a July 15 memo that the Army would implement the 57 recommendations that it could carry out on its own and would address six additional recommendations that required input from outside the Army.
McHugh appointed Thomas E. Haw- ley, Deputy Under Secretary of the Army, to lead implementation of the recommendations.
“After 10 years at war, it’s time to retrench and look at how and what we are doing” in acquisition, Hawley said, adding that the acquisition of weapon systems is
“extraordinarily complex” and that pro- curement of any system requires “constant scrutiny and adjustment.”
WHAT WE ARE DOING NOW THAT’S DIFFERENT IS LOOKING AT THE TRADE SPACE BEFORE WE SAY WE WANT THIS CAPABILITY.
THE ARMY IS
ABSOLUTELY DEDICATED AND COMMITTED TO AN AFFORDABLE, ACHIEVABLE, AND REALISTIC APPROACH
TO ACQUISITION.” AS
C.ARMY.MI L 97
”
EFFICIENCIES
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140
