Defense Acquisition ~ The Folly of “Reform”

Once upon a time during Operation Desert Storm our aircraft sat broken and out of the fight on the flight deck of a U.S. Navy destroyer.?A long conversation in the hangar bay about its restoration was ended abruptly by our maintenance chief:?“Sir, do you want to go flying, or do you want to talk about it?”

And that’s where we are with the defense acquisition process. The Pentagon announced this month that it would form yet another commission to study how to reform the acquisition process. With all due respect to the really smart people who will convene in the hangar and talk about it, there are some master chiefs out there who already know the real problem, and who can get us airborne and into the fight – now.?

It’s not as if the urgency doesn’t exist.?A recent piece in Defense News reminds us China isn’t talking – they’re building (These seven principles could help DoD acquisition in the face of the China threat (defensenews.com); and they do provide useful principles to follow, including:?“establish short deadlines and work quickly; use the latest technology and adapt it for your objectives; and establish a short chain of command and avoid bureaucratic ‘sludge.’”?But the master chief is hearing this, and is now tapping his foot impatiently on the flight deck.?

Here’s what the master chief knows is missing:?while “root causes” is a phrase that’s over-used, we’re not getting to the root cause of the dysfunction in the acquisition process, which is this:?we don’t value the right things.?We should value just two things, and two things only:?combat effectiveness and value to the taxpayer, in that order.?Instead, what we actually value is a set of truly debilitating things that have developed over the years, including:?

• ?Price.?That’s different than value, though related – we should simply find and acquire the innovation we need, and worry about price later.?Price is for bean counters, not war fighters.?And ignoring price over time is actually cheaper in the end because it acquires innovation faster;
• Risk aversion, micro-management and over-auditing of contracts for fear that someone will cheat the government.?They will – so what??Prosecute offenders after the fact, stop chasing potential offenders before the fact (it would be a LOT less expensive), and;
• A competitive bidding process that is overly-concerned with “feel good” but ultimately wholly unrelated things like the cultural, gender, or the whatever-identity of the supplier.?With apologies to the “equity” crowd, it’s unrelated nonsense.?Let us buy what works, not what makes us feel good about who makes it.

A master chief will tell you these things (or the lowly director of a business alliance with not as much to lose for speaking truth).?An admiral, or a senator, or the CEO of a major defense prime, or a JAG officer, or a member of a Pentagon-commissioned commission will not, though they may want to.?We can continue to stand around in the hangar bay and value the wrong things, while our enemies maximize their advantage on the battlefield.?Or we can access technology at the speed that the best and most innovative economy in the world allows.?It’s pretty simple, in the end.

But what do I know??I'm just a simple helicopter pilot who wants to buy cool technology and go flying in it.

Chip Laingen ~ 2022