From the Editor-in-Chief I @
Email Nelson McCouch III
ArmyALT@gmail.com
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know what you’re thinking as you look at the theme for this issue: “Really, acquisi- tion reform again? Didn’t we just do that?” Or, more to the point, “It’s beyond repair.
Why bother?”
If acquisition reform were a straight-up matter of making what the military needs, it would be a simple 1+1=2 equation: Figure out what you need, build it and deploy—but it’s not. Billions of dollars equals thousands of manufacturers, which equals hundreds of senators and representatives vying for a piece of the pie for their constituents, which equals jobs. As former House Speaker Tomas P. “Tip” O’Neill is often quoted as saying, “All poli- tics is local.”
To ensure that taxpayers’ dollars are spent respon- sibly, there are countless laws and policies in place, and congressional oversight. Te House and Senate produce an annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that guides overall defense spending and even drills down to the type of equipment the military should have and where it will be stationed. Sometimes lost in the shuffle is the military’s pri- mary challenge of identifying threats and needed equipment far enough in advance to be able to conceive, build and deploy the equipment before it becomes obsolete. Given all the above, you can appreciate that the challenge of acquisition reform is vastly complex. It sure ain’t easy!
Nonetheless, acquisition reform is underway once again. Tis time, it is seeing some progress in the hands of House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Tornberry, R–Texas. His legis- lation, now part of the NDAA for FY17, aims to thin out regulations that focus more on paperwork than production, correct incentives that lead to poor performance, and increase accountability for acquisition projects. However, the Senate version of the NDAA would introduce more sweeping than incremental changes, decentralizing DOD-level acquisition authority and empowering the ser- vice chiefs to regain responsibility for acquisition programs.
At this writing, the House and Senate versions have yet to be reconciled. In any case, President Obama has threatened to veto both bills, warning that “these
changes would roll back the acquisition reforms of the last two decades.”
Not all of the action is on Capitol Hill, though. Te Army acquisition executive (AAE), the Hon. Katrina McFarland, isn’t waiting for a final decision on the NDAA. Since becoming AAE in February, she has focused on how to reset and rebuild acqui- sition, albeit with fewer people and more tasks than ever. According to McFarland, we’ve lost sight of the mission to equip the force and instead have been caught up in the bureaucracy.
Notably, McFarland favors putting the Army chief of staff in the center of acquisition processes to ensure that the Army develops requirements that are in sync with procurement decisions. She also wants to restore capabilities to the acquisition workforce—such as operational research scientists and advisers, the people who weigh the threat from an operational point of view, not just in terms of materiel solutions—that the Army lost as a result of misapplied Goldwater-Nichols Act provisions. McFarland also wants acquisition to happen more rapidly; to accomplish that, she fully supports the establishment of the Army’s Rapid Capabilities Office. (See “Seizing the Advantage,” Page 30.)
To get needed capabilities to Soldiers as quickly as possible is the job of Army program executive offices (PEOs) and the 37,000-strong acquisition workforce. In so many respects, reform is a job best done at the program level. See how the Joint PEO for Chemical and Biological Defense is looking to streamline acquisition by “tailoring” oversight and management, in “Catch 5000.02,” Page 129. In “Interservice Integration” on Page 94, see how, despite reform being an “echelon above reality,” the Army and Air Force teamed up in Qatar to con- tract for construction together.
Our biannual readership survey will launch this month, so please take it and let us know how we’re doing and what we can do better!
If you have ideas for an upcoming magazine theme, an idea for an article you would like to write or like to see us write, or just a comment, please contact me at
ArmyALT@gmail.com.
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Nelson McCouch III Editor-in-Chief
ASC.ARMY.MIL 5
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