‘GROUNDHOG DAY’ ALL OVER AGAIN


“The necessity of getting better technology into the hands of the warfighter faster seems to me to be an imperative.”


Kendall, for example, is a former vice president of engineering for Raytheon Co. and, more recently, a managing partner at Renaissance Strategic Advisors, a Virginia-based aerospace and defense sector consulting firm. Assad worked for Raytheon from 1978 to 2000, when he retired from the company as the chair- man and CEO of its engineering and construction business.


Etherton is not optimistic that defense acquisition and fis- cal managers can reach a better understanding of each others’ incentives and motivations, but he views that as critical to effective acquisition reform. “I think until we start doing that, whatever transformation reform, whatever your target is, we’re just not going to get there. Tose will be very difficult conver- sations involving lots of stakeholders in the government with vested interest and experience. … People have told me over and over again, when I talk to government folks, that’s never going to happen. Maybe not, but I would hope that we would at least tend to move in that direction and see how far we can get,” he said, with the next step being to widen the circle of discussion to include the White House Office of Management and Budget and the congressional appropriations committees.


Fox believes that incentives, rather than processes, must change if acquisition reform is to succeed, and he sees several


opportunities for improvement. ”First, DOD can negotiate contractor profits more often as return on investment rather than as return on sales, reducing an incentive for cost growth. Second, program managers and contracting officers need more training and ‘practice’ in dealing with typical challenges and problems that occur regularly on large engineering develop- ment and production programs.”


Finally, Fox told Army AL&T, “government acquisition man- agers need to be provided with significant rewards,” namely cash, promotion opportunities or both, to recognize outstand- ing performance in implementing acquisition reforms.


“If those practices are adopted, the news would travel quickly throughout the acquisition workforce. Tat would mean the USD(AT&L) is very serious about this. More members of the acquisition workforce would say, ‘I better find out how to implement and use more competition, ‘earned value’ and


‘should cost.’ Simply applying modest effort to achieve these objectives is not sufficient,” Fox said.


A BETTER BUREAUCRACY Whatever their incentives to deliver exemplary products and services to the warfighter and be model stewards of taxpayers’ money, the acquisition workforces throughout DOD still add up to something called bureaucracy.


An overriding issue—and a contentious one, in current acqui- sition reform efforts—is the shape of the overall bureaucracy as much as its size: Who will have a hand in developing new programs? Who will have the final say in whether a program flies or dies? Who will have special authority, and how much of it, for rapid acquisition? Determining the optimal balance of authority involves not just OSD and the individual services, but also the service chiefs and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the technical


1990-1991


OPERATIONS DESERT SHIELD AND DESERT STORM


24


1992 Defense Acquisition University founded


1993 National Performance Review


• Vice President Al Gore promotes using commercial standards for acquisition programs.


Army AL&T Magazine October-December 2016


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  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192