BEHAVIORIAL ACQUISITION


FIGURE 1


EVOLUTION OF THE BRADLEY


After an 11-year development effort, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle has been in production for 50 years. (Graphic by USAASC adapted from “Then and now: Next generation on track,” Army AL&T magazine, Spring 2019.)


A HISTORY OF DECISIONS Te Bradley Fighting Vehicle remains the backbone of Army mechanized infantry warfighter formations. Developed in the 1960s, the Bradley (see Figure 1, above) was initially fielded in the early 1970s and has been upgraded several times to offer Soldiers enhanced capabilities. Since the early 2000s, the Army has been trying to replace the Bradley because size, weight and power constraints severely restrict potential upgrade options. After an 11-year development effort, the Bradley has been in production for 50 years.


One attempt at a Bradley replacement was the Infantry Carrier Vehicle (ICV), part of a family of manned ground vehi- cles within the planned Future Combat Systems program. (See Figure 2, Page 92.) Future Combat Systems entered the acqui- sition framework as an official program


90 Army AL&T Magazine Spring 2022


of record at milestone B to begin engi- neering and manufacturing development (EMD) efforts in 2003 with a planned milestone C (low-rate initial production) in 2009, later shifted to 2013. Te 10-year time frame for technology development, design, prototyping and engineering and manufacturing development was similar to the Bradley program and other efforts of similar complexity and risk. However, the Infantry Carrier Vehicle effort (along with the entire Future Combat Systems program) was canceled in 2009.


Defense acquisition experts have refer- enced Future Combat Systems as an example of everything wrong with defense acquisition—a canceled program that wasted billions of dollars and delivered no capability to warfighters. A 374-page 2012 RAND Corp. report, “Lessons From the Army’s Future Combat Systems Program,”


highlighted hundreds of lessons from different aspects of the program, includ- ing requirements management, program management, contracting and technology management.


Te Future Combat Systems program attempted to integrate critical tech- nologies using a system-of-systems management approach. The program started as a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency effort contracted through other-transaction authority (OTA) with Boeing and its industry partners. Te OTA incentivized Boeing to get the Army to an approved milestone B and establish a baseline for the formal program of record as quickly as possible.


Boeing and the Army achieved a success- ful milestone B in 2003. Te OTA also enabled Boeing to become the lead system


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