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The omnibus spending bill passed the Senate last night, finally putting an end to the latest cycle of continuing resolutions. The defense top line was increased to $728.5 billion, with extra funds put to shipbuilding, research and development, and many other areas. This bill was passed alongside $14 billion in funding to Ukraine.
Against this same backdrop of the Russian-Ukrainian war, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has published a compelling opinion piece squarely situating the need to reform Pentagon bureaucracy within the great power competition. As he says, "Overhead must be slashed, with the savings plowed into military capabilities."
Similarly, CQ Brown talked this week about the obstacles he's hit trying to implement his "Action Order B: Bureaucracy" in the Air Force. One new strategy: solidifying decisions in memos, so that staff can move out on implementation rather than waste time "re-litigating" decisions they disagree with.
Our top story this week is the new Space Force acquisition structure, which embraces a portfolio approach, with five program executive offices overseeing core capability areas.
In acquisition news, the FAR Council published the updated Buy American rule, which has been coming for a year now. Heidi Shyu talks about her goals to bolster the Small Business Innovation Research program, specifically investing more in Phase II and Phase III so new capabilities can overcome the valley of death and make it into a program of record. In research, the DODIG has released its analysis of DoD's small business subcontracting requirements.
As we announced last week, the program for the 19th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium is online, chock full of great panels and speakers. In this newsletter, we highlight one of our plenary panels you won't want to miss. Make sure you register for this virtual event!
This Week's Top Story
Space Force reveals new structure for acquisition command
Courtney Albon, C4ISRNET
The Space Force is changing the structure of its acquisition field command to improve integration between its programs and position the command to counter growing threats in space.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond announced the change in a briefing with reporters Friday at the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium, though space acquisition leaders have teased the realignment in recent months. Under the realigned structure, Space Systems Command now has five program executive offices: Assured Access to Space; Battle Management Command and Control; Space Domain Awareness and Combat Power; Communications and Positioning, Navigation and Timing; and Space Sensing. The five new program executive officers will report directly to the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition and integration.
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