Applying An Uncertainty Based Acquisition Strategy Framework To Select An Appropriate Approach For New Product Or System In The Military

Given an uncertainty-based world with changing stakeholder needs, stakeholder objectives, operating environments, and technologies, there is a paradigm shift in systems engineering from systems built to last to systems built to evolve. This is further observed when developing a product/system with a tension between confidence in requirements and the ability to respond to requirements. This natural tension of uncertainties requires a framework for balancing the need-space and solution-space between acquisition managers & chief engineers and warfighters. Embedding flexibility in a product or system is a method to foster evolvability which can sustain value delivery to its stakeholders in a feasible time and cost-effective way after the product or system has been fielded. This research and subsequent findings develop a foundational framework that was tested and analyzed from past military acquisitions through anonymous surveys and voluntary interviews. This uncertainty-based strategy framework is intended to help guide the tailorable traditional pathway acquisition process during the material solution analysis phase and can provide valuable insight into guiding the correct acquisition strategy quadrant for system design.

This monograph addresses the following two specific questions: What should a robust acquisition investment strategy look like-one designed to perform well against all anticipated threats? How should the Army acquisition community assess the appropriateness of its investment strategy over time? The study proposes adaptation of a RAND tool called Assumption-Based Planning to help Army personnel maintain proper alignment between strategic guidance and the Army acquisition program and budget. It uses this tool to create a model that recommends acquisition investments across a broad range of capabilities. The model works toward the goal of satisfying the complex and evolving requirements specified in the national security guidance. The model applies five main steps, by identifying (1) the assumptions that underlie Army acquisition policy; (2) load-bearing assumptions, i.e., important assumptions that underpin and shape Army acquisition plans; (3) signposts or indicators that an assumption is becoming vulnerable; (4) shaping actions that can be taken to keep assumptions viable, and (5) hedging actions that can be taken to prepare for unwelcome but unpreventable developments. For the acquisitions community, shaping and hedging actions both take the form of investments.

The Army acquisition community stands at a critical juncture. The Future Combat System, the centerpiece of Army transformation, has proven to be more expensive and technologically more complicated than originally anticipated, and the rapid pace of ongoing operations means that many key weapon systems will reach the end of their service lives sooner than planned or will require intensive maintenance to keep functioning. The future presents even more challenges for which the Army must prepare, including a wide range of dangerous adversaries, the potential reallocation of combat tasks across and among the services, and the prospect of budget pressures. Taken together, these circumstances raise some important questions for the Army acquisition community. What should a robust acquisition investment strategy look like -- one designed to perform well against all of the anticipated threats? Further, how should the Army acquisition community assess the appropriateness of its investment strategy as time goes by? This study seeks to provide insight into these questions by describing a new way for the Army to assess investments across a broad range of options. This method, the Acquisition Investment Management (AIM) model, incorporates Assumption-Based Planning (ABP), a tool developed by RAND to assist in planning during uncertain times. Following an introductory chapter, Chapter Two describes how the authors developed and applied the Army acquisition investment strategy process. Chapter Three discusses how this process could be incorporated into the Army's current programming and budgeting activities. Chapter Four concludes with lessons for the acquisition community drawn from the period between the two World Wars. Four appendixes support the analysis with details of Assumption-Based Planning, alternative sets of circumstances, the budget categories the research employed to create the acquisition investment strategy development process, and an account of the interwar era.

A step-by-step guide to defense system acquisition, this valuable textbook describes the step-by-step defense system acquisition process. The text begins by introducing the requirements and acquisition process and then outlines the formal framework of the acquisition process. "Acquisition of Defense Systems" makes an excellent primary or supplemental text for DoD courses. It's also a must-read for all defense system managers, as well as other managers doing DoD contract work.

Issues for 2009- cataloged as a serial in LC.

In 2012, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), section 818, outlined new requirements for industry to serve as the lead in averting counterfeits in the defense supply chain. Subsequently, the House Armed Services Committee, in its report on the Fiscal Year 2016 NDAA, noted that the pending sale of IBM's microprocessor fabrication facilities to Global Foundries created uncertainty about future access of the United States to trusted state-of-the-art microelectronic components and directed the Comptroller General to assess the Department of Defense's (DoD's) actions and measures to address this threat. In this context, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop to facilitate an open dialogue with leading industry, academic, and government experts to (1) define the current technological and policy challenges with maintaining a reliable and secure source of microelectronic components; (2) review the current state of acquisition processes within the Air Force for acquiring reliable and secure microelectronic components; and (3) explore options for possible business models within the national security complex that would be relevant for the Air Force acquisition community. This publication summarizes the results of the workshop.

To inform the U.S. Army's decisionmaking process surrounding commonality in military equipment, RAND was asked to assess the advantages and disadvantages of commonality and how to best manage their trade-offs. This report presents analyses of the effects of commonality on costs, capabilities, and training and offers a decisionmaking aid that designers, developers, and procurers could use to inform their decisions about commonality.

The 1993 policy to promote the consolidation of the United States defense industry began a series of acquisitions and mergers that went beyond the intent of the policy and left the Department of Defense (DoD) in a monopolistic environment. This sweeping reform produced unintended consequences that remain in the market today. There are essentially five major defense contractors who wield tremendous power. These companies account for nearly 70% of defense product sales annually. Defense consolidation has diminished the flexibility required for surge capacity, diminished competitive innovations in products, and reduced competitive pricing based on multiple sources for products. Research indicates that the defense acquisition system can be analyzed on a three part strategic framework comprised of the military, the economy and politics. An understanding of the interrelationship of these three components within the context of the strategic framework can not only provide us insight into how the system will behave given certain inputs, it can also help us to shape the future acquisition system. Recommendations are provided to adjust the current DoD acquisition strategy in order to increase both the effectiveness and efficiency of the defense acquisition system.

The authors analyze various approaches to speed acquisition of military capabilities and keep pace with evolving threats, assess these approaches' suitability for different conditions and acquisition types, and identify implementation issues.