Defense Department
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Big programs at DoD continue to overspend their budgets and blow past their schedules because of unrealistic requirements and rosy cost projections. As part of our special report, The Missing Pieces of Procurement Reform, several acquisition experts pointed out that DoD acquisition is one of the most studied problems in the history of government.
October 16, 2014 -
For now, push-ups and math scores are the main methods the Army uses to screen potential recruits. But officials say they are studying measures that take a "whole person" approach identifying future soldiers.
October 15, 2014 -
The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations asked 31 acquisition experts to weigh in on how the Defense acquisition process can be reformed. Federal News Radio brings you some of the highlights.
October 15, 2014 -
The success of defense acquisition will always depend on the capability of a limited number of people inside and outside government whose resources of time and attention are finite. Increased skill, relevant experiences, and cultural adjustment of the workforce will occur only gradually and only with adequate funding and congressional oversight, says contracting expert Jonathan Etherton.
October 15, 2014 -
William Greenwalt, the former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy, says its long overdue to update the way the Defense Department purchases goods and services.
October 13, 2014 -
As part of a project dubbed Command Post 2025, the Army wants to begin running complex modeling and simulation programs on the battlefield, using low-power devices in austere conditions.
October 10, 2014 -
President Richard Nixon once joked with Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. He said he'd give her three U.S. generals in exchange for the legendary Moshe Dyan. Meir answered, sure, I'll take General Motors, General Electric and General Dynamics. Today's Defense Industrial Base is operating in a changing and uncertain economy. In the last few years, it's been hit by Defense spending cutbacks. Nayantara Hensel, former chief economist for the Navy, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to describes what this means to the Defense Industrial Base and to the Defense enterprise.
October 09, 2014 -
The next steps in defense acquisition reform may come from the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations asks experts from all parts of the defense acquisition community to tell them where the committee should go next to streamline defense acquisition. Beth McGrath of Deloitte is former Deputy Chief Management Officer at the Defense Department and one of the contributors to the committee's efforts. She worked to institute what she called a cost culture. She didn't use that phrase in her comments to the committee, but Francis Rose asked her if that concept was written between the lines on In Depth.
October 09, 2014 -
The Defense and Homeland Security departments both say they are putting their programs on a path that will insist that technologies are rigorously tested before they commit to expensive acquisition strategies.
October 08, 2014 -
In an era of fiscal austerity, DoD must continue to maintain operations and modernize forces in order to support national security. What acquisition challenges are facing the U.S. Department of Defense? What actions can be taken to improve defense acquisition and the Defense Industrial Base? Join host Michael Keegan as he explore these questions and more with Profs. Jack Gansler and Bill Lucyshyn, authors of the IBM Center report, Eight Actions to Improve Defense Acquisition.
October 06, 2014 -
Jerry Punderson, the outgoing director of contracts for the Naval Sea Systems Command, will join PSC as its new senior vice president of defense and intelligence.
October 06, 2014 -
A Pentagon review of the military's health facilities concluded the quality of DoD's medical system is generally in line with what's offered by private sector providers. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said "average" is not good enough.
October 02, 2014 -
The Army is the latest federal organization to lay out a career path for its cybersecurity leaders. Career Field 17 will offer soldiers that career path. Advocates of professionalizing the cyber workforce believe that would feed talent pipelines with the people agencies need to succeed. Lt. Col. Sean Kern is cyberspace operations officer, and a graduate student at the Joint Advanced Warfighting School at Joint Forces Staff College at the National Defense University. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he said the main cyber problem right now is a people problem.
October 01, 2014 -
On this week's On DoD, John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, says the role of an IG is to effectuate change. In his words, "If it's worth publishing, it's worth publicizing."
October 01, 2014 -
The Pentagon will begin a new fiscal year under yet another continuing resolution. When a budget finally is passed, Defense Department officials expect Congress to reject a significant number of proposals to cut DoD's own costs.
October 01, 2014