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Incredibly, the 20th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium is only three months away--which means it's time for presenters to book airfare and hotel, polish up research findings, and invite friends to join us in Monterey. See below for registration link. With that reminder, on to this week's news.
This week the House Armed Services Committee held several hearings of note, from the threat posed by the People's Republic of China (surveillance programs and all) to the state of the defense industrial base (which is continuing its consolidating trajectory).
- Common theme from a variety of voices: it's time to move defense acquisition and production from a peacetime footing to a wartime posture.
- Industry is also requesting a more reliable "demand signal."
In President Biden's State of the Union address, he repeated his goal of boosting Buy American to require all infrastructure materials used as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to be domestically sourced.
- The OMB guidance provides limited, though familiar, waivers to this mandate.
Biden also addressed the need to outcompete--and outeducate--the PRC.
- In a related article, NPS' Director of Strategic Initiatives Bill Sherrod offers a vision for what that kind of education needs to be for defense professionals, and how NPS offers a unique capability to meet that need.
- Part of this capability is the NPS expertise of both mission-critical technologies and the management and acquisition processes to deliver those technologies to warfighters, as our second article on NPS innovation explains.
In acquisition news, we have a slate of commentary pieces that offer insights and analysis on the state of acquisition:
- Middle Tier Acquisition programs are facing new scrutiny from Congress, who wants more oversight over their pace and funding choices.
- Will Roper argues that organizations designed to innovate should in fact show metrics of their returns on investment to keep criticisms at bay
- Alex Gallo argues that technology innovators need to understand defense policy and strategy to get any results
- The Army is using multiyear contracts to build up munitions supplies faster, setting a precedent other services should follow
And in more ARP news, we have a webinar coming up next month. Our principal investigator Bob Mortlock is offering another case study, this time on shipbuilding. It's a great opportunity to flex critical thinking muscles on a real-world acquisition challenge.
This Week's Top Story
Lawmakers worry about weapons makers’ ability to meet demand
Joe Gould, Military Times
Lawmakers voiced worries on Wednesday about the health of the defense-industrial base in a House hearing where trade leaders said spending volatility and red tape make it tough for industry to surge capacity.
Amid broader discussions in the House about potential Pentagon budget cuts, members of the House Armed Services Committee offered a sympathetic forum for the defense sector as important to national security and an economic engine. For their part, leaders with the Aerospace Industries Association, National Defense Industrial Association and Shipbuilders Council of America said industry would respond best to stable demand from government.
“We cannot prevail in any conflict without a ready, strong and adaptable industrial base. Yet the defense-industrial base is experiencing a multitude of challenges,” said the panel’s chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala. “Some of these include inflation, workforce shortages, bureaucratic hurdles and supply chains that remain too dependent on foreign sources of materials.”
Amid calls from industry for the administration to adjust otherwise firm-fixed-price contracts to account for inflation, Rogers said the administration “refuses to use the authorities and resources Congress gave them last year to provide necessary relief.”
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