“You cannot have people staying too long in one place, or they essentially become non-promotable to a higher level. That conflicts in certain cases with some of the needs of the management of the acquisition process.”


most recently as the project manager (PM) for Soldier protection and indi- vidual equipment under PEO Soldier. Mortlock retired in September 2015 and is now a lecturer for defense acquisition and program management at the Gradu- ate School of Business and Public Policy at the Naval Postgraduate School.


“PEOs are trained, educated, certified members of the acquisition profession. Tey have decades of operational man- agement experience and training in leading program offices, and they possess the necessary technical and business acu- men, as well as the mandated acquisition certifications required of members of the


acquisition profession,” Mortlock wrote in a commentary for this issue of Army AL&T. (See “Been Tere, Done Tat,” Page 120.)


If PEOs had milestone decision author- ity for acquisition programs, DOD could make optimal use of OSD and service acquisition staffs by giving them exclu- sively oversight roles, Mortlock wrote, stating


that “it would empower the


right folks and simplify the PM chain of command, applying a key principle of war—simplicity—to defense acquisition.”


SETTING A ‘RAPID’ PACE In its “Pathway to Transformation,” NDIA laid out the conflict between traditional defense acquisition and modern-day needs for new battlefield capabilities, citing:


• Overly complex acquisition laws and regulations and their enforcement bureaucracy, which together create unclear lines of authority and account- ability in program management.


• Micromanagement in response to per- ceived failures in the acquisition system, with ever-increasing process compli- ance and reporting requirements.


Te solution, NDIA stated, would not require a wholesale reform of defense


acquisition to more closely resemble rapid acquisition authorities. Nor, the report concluded, would the creation of rapid acquisition authorities necessarily become a device to circumvent the tradi- tional acquisition system. “For our part, NDIA does not believe there is a ‘one size fits all’ approach that will uniformly deliver the best acquisition outcomes. Different kinds of acquisition programs require different kinds of tools, authori- ties, and oversight to ensure integrity in the process.” Te organization called for DOD to create new tools for rapid acquisition.


A year later, the NDAA for FY16 helped set the pace for DOD to pursue more aggressively several new acquisition pro- cesses, not entirely separate but distinctly unequal from the traditional acquisition system, to explore and mature promising technologies before they become part of a program of record, and the momentum continues.


Te legislation, Public Law No: 114-


92, established several avenues to faster procurement:


• Rapid acquisition authority, enabling a contracting officer to purchase items to rectify a document deficiency that could result in a cyberattack or other life-threatening situation.


2001 Rumsfeld challenge from President Bush


• Review the nation’s defense strategy.


• Examine and reassess the number of of- fensive nuclear weapons.


• Encourage a culture of creativity and intel- ligent risk-taking in DOD.


(Image source: Wikimedia commons, U.S. Army) ASC.ARMY.MIL 27


2003-2010 OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM


2005 ‘Reexamining


Military Acquisition Reform’ – RAND Corp. study


• “Are we there yet?” Focused on past acquisition reform efforts.


ACQUISITION


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