Day 2 of Acquisition Research Symposium: Highlights
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We’ve put another symposium in the history books! Thanks to all who attended our events, chaired panels, and shared important research and analysis with the ARP community. We couldn’t do this without you!
Next year we’re planning a hybrid symposium to celebrate 20 years of hosting this premier event. We hope you’ll join us on a triumphant return to Monterey. Stay tuned for confirmed 2023 dates.
Throughout the two-day event, the symposium got a lot of praise for its unique ability to bring together researchers, leaders, and operational experts—all focused on improving acquisition from a data-driven perspective. This started with Mr. Hunter and Mr. Ross and carried over into panel sessions. And it’s true: we saw some great conversation and banter in the green room before panels got started, and this carried over into productive conversations with the full group of attendees.
Scroll to the end of this email, and you'll find links to some of the panels we've already posted.
Here's an overview of some of today's highlights.
 Keynote: Mr. Tommy Ross
The day started off with our second keynote, Mr. Tommy Ross, who chose this event for his first official speaking engagement in his new role performing the duties of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition. His comments and conversation made clear how his job as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Navy has given him a broad picture of the Navy’s capabilities and priorities.
Much like Andrew Hunter’s remarks yesterday, Mr. Ross reminded the audience of his department’s strategic guidance from both Secretary Del Toro and Chief of Naval Operations Gilday, noting that these strategic priorities all have an important role for acquisition.
From the Secretary of the Navy’s Strategic Guidance, Ross highlighted the three enduring priorities. The first is Maintaining Maritime Dominance in Defense of Our Nation. Here, Ross noted that, “As the acquisition community, our charge is to maintain the agility, efficiency, and urgency that we need to meet that challenge. We won’t succeed matching our pacing challenge without an acquisition community that can deliver the capabilities and capacity we need on a timely and affordable basis.”
The second priority is Empowering Our People. Ross noted the importance of a “healthy, rewarding work environment” where people are treated with dignity, respect, and gratitude for their work. The importance of supporting the acquisition workforce came up throughout the symposium, especially in today’s plenary panel with the Directors for Acquisition Talent Management for the services and the fourth estate (described more below).
The third priority is Strengthening Strategic Partnerships with industry, academia, allies, and partners. “Those partnerships with industry and academia is exactly what you’re doing here today, and of course what we spend an enormous amount of time in the acquisition community fostering. Without them, we will not succeed.”
Ross then talked through the CNO’s call to Get Real, Get Better. Following this mandate, “our acquisition professionals at all levels must constantly self-assess their needs. Where do we have obstacles? Where do we have barriers that we need to overcome? Where can we do better? They must close gaps in performance and apply more technical rigor throughout the acquisition lifecycle of their programs.”
During Q&A, Ross expounded on the challenge of applying this methodology to the acquisition community, hitting a familiar note. “The challenge is that people who can identify those challenges don’t have resources and authority to address them at their level. We need to help them get to the right level to address them.”
Summing up his thoughts on Naval strategic documents, Ross said, “My point here is that when senior leaders launch initiatives like this, they are speaking as much to acquisition professionals like you as to any other naval professionals. And so it’s critical to apply this guidance to your research.”
Ross gave a few specific areas he would recommend for research, pulling from capabilities detailed in the NavPlan Implementation Framework:
- Long-range fires
- Counter C5ISR
- Terminal defense
- Contested logistics
On contested logistics, Ross pointed out that the Navy needs to focus research and development on improving organic sustainability and created more a efficient and effective sustainment architecture.
Updated Navy acquisition guidance
Ross shared that he personally read and edited all 180 pages of the new Navy acquisition guidance, SECNAVINST 5000.2G, which is updated to align with the Adaptive Acquisition Framework. Smiling, he admitted, “That was my indoctrination into the acquisition world.”
Sustainment
Another topic that came up during Q&A was the challenge of sustainment in the Navy. Ross lamented, “The amount of time our ships’ crews spend on maintenance instead of warfighting is something we need to pay attention to."
One last thing
We’ll end with what may be the best one liner from this year’s symposium. In his introduction to Mr. Ross, VADM (Ret.) Dave Lewis commented on Ross’s unusual education—he holds a M.A. in Theology and Ethics from Union Theological Seminary in New York. Lewis noted this was quite a career change, to which Ross replied, “we go through a lot of faith-based policymaking around here.”
Plenary Panel 14: Acquisition Workforce: Insights from the Service Directors, Acquisition Career Management (DACMs)
Today’s plenary panel gave insight into how the implementation of Back to Basics is going across DOD: at each of the services, the fourth estate, and at Defense Acquisition University.
Chair:
- Brigadier General Michael E. Sloane, USA (retired), Dean, Defense Systems Management College, Defense Acquisition University
Panelists:
- Ronald R. Richardson, Jr., Director, U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center and Director, Acquisition Career Management (DACM)
- Marianne Lyons, U.S. Navy Director, Acquisition Talent Management (DATM)
- David Slade, U.S. Air Force Director, Acquisition Career Management (DACM)
- Otis Lincoln, 4th Estate Director, Acquisition Career Management (DACM)
Some common themes and interesting points:
- The roll-out of Back to Basics is being coordinated across services, creating the opportunity for conversations and sharing of best practices.
- Modernization of the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) certification streamlines 14 career fields into 6 functional areas.
- This effort has involved evaluating which roles truly belong in the acquisition community, with each service working to recode existing positions and writing new position descriptions.
- In the Army, this effort has removed over 11,000 members of the acquisition workforce who were not directly tied to acquisition function (e.g., facilities engineering).
- Acquisition professionals have the ability to take more initiative in choosing just-in-time learning based on their interests, rather than completing predetermined curriculum.
- Supervisors will need to be more directly engaged with their employees in conversations about professional development.
- Otis Lincoln oversees all acquisition workforce for the fourth estate: he serves as principal advisor to the Component Acquisition Executives for 30 executive agencies, to include intelligence community.
Air Force notes:
- Sammy Slade pointed out that he is now the DACM for the Department of the Air Force, which includes Space Force. In his words, he now serves two masters, each with different cultures.
- The Air Force now has a digital university and is working to make sure all airmen and guardians are trained to work in an agile acquisition environment. The Air Force is developing credentials specific to its needs, with a focus on space and digital capabilities.
Target of Opportunity: We would be remiss if we didn't point out that the Naval Postgraduate School, and the Department of Defense Management that ARP works closely with, offers a number of distance learning options and certificates in acquisition, contracting, and program management. We have many resources that the new generation of self-motivated, back-to-basics learners can take advantage of.
Panel 15: Implications of the National Defense Strategy for Defense Acquisition System
This panel presented more information on trends in defense budgets and contracting.
Chair:
- Cynthia Cook, Director, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group and Senior Fellow, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Panelists:
- Todd Harrison, Senior Vice President and Head of Research, Meta Aerospace
- David Arthur, Weapon Systems Unit Analyst, Congressional Budget Office
- Gregory Sanders, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Once again, Greg Sanders provided excellent analysis of defense contracting trends using data from FPDS. Some points we noted:
- Spending on R&D is up, but down for products and services.
- OTA spend for products is growing.
- Spend on product portfolios is declining, following the goal of divesting to invest.
… with one exception: space systems saw an increase.
- Data housekeeping note: it’s difficult to track remotely crewed vehicles because there is only one product service code, not separated by service or distinguished between maritime vs. land vehicles. Sanders suggested we need better categories to track this spending.
David Arthur’s research looked at challenges to defense acquisition portfolios if DoD made major changes to strategy. His analysis of the defense budget hit some points about funding constraints that may be familiar to this audience, but which are worth repeating. In particular, he began by showing that DoD discretionary spending is a small fraction of the overall federal budget.
Todd Harrison provided some data and analysis focused on the impact of inflation on the defense budget. The bad news bottom line: recent inflation rates mean DOD will lose about $330 billion in buying power over the next five years.
During Q&A, VADM Lewis continued a conversation from yesterday questioning the nature of inflation among defense contractors, who have reported record profits despite inflation. Harrison responded by offering that companies hold on to cash when they’re uncertain about the future—among other points.
Asked to make predictions on how inflation will impact defense contracts, Sanders said we’ll see more fixed price contracts with economic price adjustment, which allow the government to mitigate financial risk.
Other panels of note:
- Today’s session on machine learning was chaired by another long-time friend of the ARP and symposium attendee, the Honorable Nick Guertin, now Director of Operational Testing and Evaluation.
- Our third student poster show panel, where upcoming NPS graduates shared their research on topics ranging from inventory accuracy to additive manufacturing and female attrition rates.
Missed a session? Want to catch up?
All papers, presentations, and student posters are available to view and download from our symposium website.
2022 Book of Abstracts, Papers & Proceedings
ARP Student Research Poster Show
And remember, you can earn Continuous Learning (CLPs) for attending the symposium. If looking for documentation, email michelle.johnson.ctr@nps.edu.
Video recordings
Recordings for each day’s keynote speaker and plenary session are already available here:
Other panels will be added over the coming weeks and months to the ARP YouTube channel. Subscribe, and you’ll be notified when new content goes live.
Thank you for being part of the ARP acquisition community!
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