Efforts to reform defense acquisition must address the Department of Defense’s (DoD) limited purchasing power and its growing inability to sway commercial technology trends, according to former DoD officials.
A bipartisan effort led by House Armed Services Committee Vice Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) is currently underway to reform the DoD’s acquisition system. Similar efforts in the past, however, have fallen short.
“Defense acquisition reform has a long and distinguished record of failure,” former Pentagon Comptroller Dov Zakheim said. “Ever since Robert McNamara attempted to reform a system that at the time was yielding cost overruns and schedule delays, successive secretaries and deputy secretaries of defense, legislators and congressionally-mandated commissions have proposed changes in the nature of DoD’s management, its organization, its bureaucracy, its processes and its contracting methodology. And still programs overrun, and still schedules slip, and still there are cancellations.”
Bipartisan support for the current effort to reform the acquisition system is promising, Zakheim said, but the legislation must focus on training and the need for DoD leadership in order to achieve success.
Former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense of Industrial Policy William Greenwalt said the reforms must also address the DoD’s diminished purchasing power and growing inability to sway technology trends.
“Potential adversaries may understand the implications of these trends better than DoD does, so the risks are great if we don’t get reform right,” Greenwalt said. “Reps. Thornberry and Smith bring a considerable amount of senior-level experience to the table to address many of these challenges and foster real change. Past successful acquisition reform has been bipartisan, so much can be done by these two members working together.”
Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) said the rapid growth of military entitlements could be a major obstacle facing defense acquisition, and meaningful reforms.
“In fiscal year 2013, the federal government spent more for military retirement and health care benefits ($143 billion) than it did for procurement ($110 billion),” Simpson said. “Most Americans – and veterans like me – would agree we should provide generous benefits for those who serve. Yet this level of benefits is unsustainable.”