‘GROUNDHOG DAY’ ALL OVER AGAIN


keep up with the speed of technology— ideally, to keep ahead of it. We would not need the Joint Improvised-Treat Defeat Agency, for example, if sufficiently advanced technology existed to defeat improvised threats.


At the same time, however, in addition to asymmetrical nonstate actors using cheap, off-the-shelf technology, the U.S. still has to contend with more traditional potential adversaries—states with large armies,


large defense budgets and very


sophisticated technologies. Add to that the experience of the wars in Afghani- stan and Iraq during which the Pentagon rapidly acquired and fielded a variety of materiel, such as the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, while tra- ditional, multidecade procurements lumbered along.


Add to that the 2011 Budget Control Act, which created sequestration. Trow in a presidential election in which the down-ballot races appear significantly less predictable than usual, and we have a circumstance in which many may want to see some kind of reform, even regard it as urgently needed, but it’s anybody’s guess what will happen.


For Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who chairs the SASC, reform is an absolute must. “America’s broken


CAN I GET A WITNESS?


U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, questions Defense Secretary Ash Carter during his testimony on DOD’s proposed FY17 budget in Washington, D.C., on March 22. Thornberry noted earlier this year that threats against the U.S. are growing in number and diversity, and said that getting better technology into the hands of the warfighter faster is an imperative. (DOD photo by Air Force Senior Master Sgt. Adrian Cadiz)


defense acquisition system is not just a budgetary scandal. It’s a national secu- rity crisis,” he told War on the Rocks in July 2015. In May, he told the Brookings Institution, “Instead of one great power rival, the United States now faces a series of trans-regional, cross-functional, multi-domain and long-term strategic competitions that pose a significant


challenge to the organization of the Pen- tagon and the military, which is often rigidly aligned around functional issues and regional geography.”


“Te last major reorganization of the Department of Defense,” McCain con- tinued, “was the Goldwater-Nichols Act, which marks its 30th anniversary this


1953 DOD Reorganization Act


• Designated assistant secretaries for sup- ply and logistics and for research and development.


1955 Robertson Committee


• Defined roles of project and program managers.


1958 Advanced Research Projects Agency established


• Formed to keep up with accelerating pace of technology.


18


Army AL&T Magazine


October-December 2016


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