the Army Acquisition Corps as a cadre of elite acquisition professionals, both military and civilian, that would serve as the training ground for critical acquisi- tion positions at the top levels of Army acquisition.
Over the past 25 years, a number of acquisition reform recommendations have focused on making incremental improvements to various aspects of the acquisition process, including organiza- tion, budget and requirements. Te 1993 Section 800 Report streamlined acquisi- tion laws by reviewing legislation and recommending repeals or amendments. Also in 1993, the National Performance Review recommended the use of commer- cial standards for acquisition programs and ultimately led to the Federal Acqui- sition Streamlining Act of 1994, which simplified procurement code.
Tat same year, Secretary of Defense
William J. Perry issued a memorandum outlining major changes military many
specifications and saw the existing specifications
and standards as imposing unnecessary restrictions, increasing costs and slow- ing technology development. His memo called for modifying military require- ments, changes in configuration control, a reduction in oversight, and a number of new cultural and process approaches required to implement these changes.
Some three years later, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen issued the Defense Reform Initiative, designed to streamline DOD’s organizational struc- ture and business practices. Te initiative centered on reforms in acquisition, logis- tics and financial management, and led to the creation of the Defense Manage- ment Council and the Defense Reform Initiatives Office.
In 1999, the assis- tant secretary of the Army for research,
in the use of standards;
development and acquisition was rechris- tened the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology— and Army RD&A magazine became Army AL&T.
In late 2001, Secretary of Defense Don- ald H. Rumsfeld, speaking at DOD’s
“Acquisition and Logistics Excellence Week,” issued a challenge “to shift [the] Pentagon’s resources from bureaucracy to the battlefield, from tail to the tooth.” He announced an overhaul of DOD’s planning, programming and budgeting system and called for increased business agility and tapping private-sector busi- ness expertise to help streamline the acquisition process and spur innovation in the supplier base.
Five years later, the 2006 Defense Acqui- sition Performance Assessment Report proposed changes to the acquisition pro- cess that would improve DOD’s ability to deliver capabilities to the warfighter by stabilizing and integrating all six elements of the acquisition system: organization, workforce, budget, requirements, acquisi- tion and industry. In the past, acquisition had taken place in a global environment dominated by only a few strategic threats. However, the assessment concluded, the current security environment presented dynamic security challenges and rap- idly changing needs, and the acquisition process needed flexibility and agility to respond to those issues.
In 2009, Congress passed the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act, chang- ing the way the Pentagon contracts and purchases major defense acquisition pro- grams to reduce procurement costs. Te legislation created DOD’s Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation to analyze new program costs, increasing the emphasis on testing new weapons before they enter production.
Defense procurement now accounts for roughly 10 percent of discretionary federal spending, making it a popular target in the current climate of declining budgets and shifting overseas military operations. In March 2014, Rep. Mac Tornberry, R–TX, held the first hear- ings of a 14-month bipartisan initiative in the House Armed Services Commit- tee that focuses on reforming defense acquisition. Among the issues under con- sideration are improvements in recruiting, training and developing the acquisition workforce; empowering key acquisition personnel to make effective decisions; enhancing technical expertise needed to support successful acquisition projects; and improvements in planning, contract- ing and managing services contracts.
MR. STEVE STARK provides contract- ing support to the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center (USAASC) for SAIC. He holds an M.A. in creative writing from Hol- lins University and a B.A. in English from George Mason University. He has worked in a variety of positions supporting commu- nications for the Army and Navy, and has written about defense-related topics for more than a decade. He was the founding editor of the Program Executive Office Soldier Portfolio and edited the Army’s Weapon Sys- tems handbook for six years.
MS. SUSAN L. FOLLETT provides con- tracting support to USAASC for SAIC. She holds a B.A. in English literature from St. Lawrence University. She has more than two decades of experience as a journal- ist and has written on a variety of public and private- sector topics, including mod- eling and simulation, military training and technology, and federal environmental regulations.
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