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National Defense June 2009 Sandra I. Erwin |
Defense Must Measure True Cost of Fuel, Says Ashton Carter The Pentagon must factor the additional transportation and security costs associated with each weapon system, said the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.  |
National Defense September 2011 Sandra I. Erwin |
As Pressure Grows to Cut Spending, the True Cost of Weapons Is Anyone's Guess A decade of soaring Pentagon spending is coming to an end, and it is leaving behind considerable fiscal wreckage.  |
National Defense May 2015 Sandra I. Erwin |
Procurement Issues That Congress Won't Fix The new foreign policy mantra in Washington is that the world is on fire. The nation's weapons procurement machine, meanwhile, keeps partying like it's 1999.  |
National Defense May 2012 Sandra I. Erwin |
Industry Recalibrating Strategies For a Declining Defense Market The defense market is shaping up to become a Darwinian world where winning contracts will be a matter of life or death for many companies.  |
National Defense June 2009 Sandra I. Erwin |
Defense Industry: What Does Change Really Mean? The defense industry is unsure how they will be affected by revamped procurement practices promised by the Pentagon.  |
National Defense September 2009 Sandra I. Erwin |
Pentagon to Revamp IT Buying Practices But the Pentagon has yet to master the procurement of high-tech networks and information systems, a senior official said.  |
National Defense January 2010 Sandra I. Erwin |
Acquisition Reform Act: The Backlash Has Begun It's only been seven months since President Obama signed the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009. Predictably, a chorus of disapproval already is being heard.  |
National Defense July 2013 Sandra I. Erwin |
Pentagon Tries to Recapture Tech Glory Days After spending $50 billion over the past decade on failed weapons programs, the Pentagon is grasping for answers. Assorted procurement reforms have been tried, but they have delivered only marginal results.  |
National Defense July 2014 Sandra I. Erwin |
Hope and Despair in Government Procurement It's crunch time for acquisition reformers as they face a July deadline to submit recommendations to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.  |
National Defense March 2005 Lawrence P. Farrell Jr. |
The Budget Realities We Must Face As Congress deliberates at length on the fine points of the Bush administration's fiscal year 2006 budget request for the Defense Department, it may be an appropriate time to take a broader look at the potential implications of the Pentagon's spending plan.  |
National Defense June 2012 Sandra I. Erwin |
For Defense Industry, Lure of Shiny Objects Rapidly Fading The erstwhile dependable moneymakers in the defense industry no longer look like safe bets. Big-ticket weapon systems are being delayed, terminated, investigated or mired in endless reviews.  |
National Defense February 2013 Sandra I. Erwin |
Less Money, But Still Business As Usual As the dust begins to settle to reveal a leaner defense budget, Pentagon contractors are strategizing for the new business environment. They also will be parsing the latest batch of Pentagon policies designed to turn around failing weapon acquisition programs.  |
National Defense February 2006 Grace Jean |
Pentagon Acquisition Reforms Likely to Encounter Opposition Radical changes to the Pentagon's acquisition system may be in place by the end of this year.  |
National Defense April 2007 Sandra I. Erwin |
Pentagon Begins Broad Review Of Acquisition Workforce Skills The Pentagon has launched an extensive evaluation of military acquisition and contracting personnel in order to gauge their skills and competence.  |
National Defense March 2009 Sandra I. Erwin |
Message to Weapons Buyers: Make it Cheaper and Faster Robert Gates concluded that the only way to deploy hardware quickly enough to war zones was to circumvent the traditional buyers and create ad-hoc "rapid procurement" teams.  |
National Defense November 2009 Sandra I. Erwin |
To Cut Waste in Defense, Stop Piling on Reforms If the Pentagon is serious about change across all programs, it can't afford another "acquisition reform charade," and must address the root cause of current problems.  |
National Defense September 2012 Sandra I. Erwin |
Next Pentagon Procurement 'Bow Wave' Will Be a Tsunami With the Defense Department now facing a precipitous drop in new equipment purchases over the next two years, the green-eyeshade crowd already is predicting a huge bow wave for 2018 and beyond, which could be the biggest one yet.  |
National Defense September 2015 Sandra I. Erwin |
Management Shakeup Looms at Defense When a new secretary of defense takes the helm at the Pentagon at the outset of the next administration, he or she will have to deal with a potentially chaotic staff reorganization that Congress signed into law.  |
National Defense May 2010 Sandra I. Erwin |
Without Radical Change, Many More Defense Programs Will End Up Like JSF The breathless hype over the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's soaring costs and schedule slips clouds a much bigger acquisition predicament for the Pentagon: How to stop more programs from ending up like JSF.  |
National Defense November 2009 Sandra I. Erwin |
Lawmakers Question Defense Strategy for 'Rapid' Acquisitions The House Armed Services Committee questions whether the Pentagon can permanently change the way it buys equipment so it does not have to create a new agency every time there is an urgent need.  |
National Defense September 2014 |
Readers Sound Off on Recent Stories Problems in DoD Acquisitions... Budget Fights... Nonlethal Weapons...  |
National Defense October 2009 Sandra i. Erwin |
New Business Model Needed To Replace the Status Quo In the weapons-acquisition world, the "normal" ways of doing business are frowned upon around the E-ring these days.  |
National Defense September 2006 Sandra I. Erwin |
Reform Agenda Targets Acquisition Workforce The Pentagon's cadre of "professional shoppers" could see a wave of reforms in the coming years, as the Defense Department remains under unrelenting pressure to fix its buying practices.  |
National Defense October 2011 Sandra I. Erwin |
Fears of the Incredibly Shrinking Defense Budget May Be Overblown A defense industry apocalypse is not here yet: Everyone in Washington is always in favor of savings in the abstract but when they see the particulars, they tend to get cold feet.  |
National Defense August 2007 Sandra I. Erwin |
Pentagon's New Jet Fighter Epitomizes Budget Dilemmas Among the Pentagon's largest weapons procurements, and one that is sure to be closely watched is the Joint Strike Fighter.  |
National Defense November 2009 Sandra I. Erwin |
Industrial Policy Debate: Should The Pentagon Pick Winners and Losers? Industry executives and trade associations have called for the Defense Department to take preemptive action to protect key sectors that are considered of strategic importance to national security.  |
National Defense July 2011 Sandra I. Erwin |
Procurement Blues: After a Decade Of Largesse, Not Much to Show for It After a decade of lavish spending, the Pentagon is now left with an aging fleet of weapon systems, an overstrained force, out-of-control personnel and healthcare costs, and no idea of how to prepare for tomorrow's wars.  |
National Defense December 2014 Sandra Erwin |
Pentagon Mulls Strategy for Next Arms Race The idea that the United States might see its overwhelming dominance in weapons technology erode is hard to comprehend, however, given the enormous spending gap between the Pentagon and everyone else.  |
National Defense March 2012 Sandra I. Erwin |
The Coming Decade: A Slowdown In Spending, but No 'Procurement Holiday' Even under the worst-case scenario, defense budgets in the coming decade will be larger than they were in the last year of the Bush administration.  |
National Defense August 2005 Sandra I. Erwin |
Looming Budget Cutbacks Underpin Defense Strategy How long the fighting in Iraq will last is anyone's guess. It seems quite certain, however, that mounting war costs will be wreaking financial havoc on many of the military's prized weapon systems. Are decision makers at the Pentagon guilty of shortsightedness?  |
National Defense October 2007 Sandra I. Erwin |
Troubled Missile Embodies Failures of Acquisition Reforms Air Force officials are considering ending a $6 billion missile program that was once the poster child of the Pentagon's acquisition reform efforts.  |
National Defense April 2006 Sandra Erwin |
Defense Procurement: Hard Decisions `Kicked Down the Road' Will the escalating costs of the war in Iraq and the rising price tags of weapon systems eventually result in the cliched Defense Department budget train wreck so many analysts have predicted for several years now?  |
National Defense March 2014 Sandra I. Erwin |
In '15 Budget, Red Flags for Contractors If defense industry CEOs can draw any conclusion from the Pentagon's 2015 budget proposal it is that, except for the too-big-to-fail joint strike fighter, most of the military's modernization plan is on shaky ground.  |
National Defense June 2005 Sandra Erwin |
Procurement Probes Framed By Bleak Financial Forecast A string of procurement debacles at the Defense Department has stirred, yet again, calls for drastic reforms in military acquisition rules and policies.  |
National Defense November 2012 Sandra I. Erwin |
More Than Money, Defense Needs Compelling Narrative Pentagon watchers already are warning that this is no time for business as usual, considering the domestic political climate and the fiscal crunch that could put defense spending in the cross hairs of a future deficit-reduction deal.  |
National Defense April 2009 Sandra I. Erwin |
Military Hardware: What Do Users Want? At a time when the Pentagon is under orders to make "tough choices" about which weapons it should acquire, military buyers may want to consider paying more attention to what troops in the field really need.  |
National Defense May 2006 Sandra I. Erwin |
Plans for Global Information Grid Unrealistic A Pentagon effort to develop a global network that connects all military services and Defense Department agencies could fail as a result of current procurement and funding policies, says the Government Accountability Office.  |
National Defense May 2008 Sandra I. Erwin |
Weapons Budget: The More You Spend, The Less You Buy A hyperinflation tsunami now threatens to sink the Defense Department's purchasing power so dramatically that a weapons budget that currently funds 95 programs will pay for just a handful of big-ticket programs  |
National Defense May 2009 Sandra I. Erwin |
Gates: Industry Unharmed By Program Cancellations The Pentagon needs to stop buying "exquisite" technology that does not meet real military needs in favor of larger quantities of critical items.  |
National Defense April 2015 Sandra I. Erwin |
Defense Technology At a Crossroads: Can the Pentagon Regain Its Innovation Mojo? The Defense Department may never become the technological juggernaut it once was, but with the groundbreaking innovation happening in the private sector, the challenge for the Pentagon is to tap emerging technology.  |
National Defense April 2011 Sandra I. Erwin |
Contractors Advised to Focus Less On Stock Prices, More on Customers Pentagon contractors will have to think differently about their business if they want to maintain or improve the financial performance they have enjoyed over the past decade, insiders say.  |
National Defense August 2009 Sandra I. Erwin |
Can Congress Keep Up the Pressure on Acquisition Reform? A recent groundswell of legislative and regulatory actions to reform Defense Department weapon acquisition practices may not lead to meaningful change if the efforts are not kept up for years to come  |
National Defense December 2012 |
Readers Sound Off on Recent Stories Readers reply to stories about the value of MRAPs and Pentagon procurement reforms.  |
National Defense March 2007 Lawrence P. Farrell |
Defense Budget Sets Stage for Tough Choices Ahead As Congress continues to dissect the details of the Bush administration's proposed defense budget for fiscal year 2008, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the nation's military faces a worrisome financial future.  |
The Motley Fool June 30, 2010 Rich Smith |
Pentagon to Defense Contractors: We've Got Your Back As Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterated plans to cut in excess of $100 billion from Pentagon spending over the next five years, they also try to reassure that they're not out to hurt anyone -- least of all investors.  |
National Defense May 2011 Sandra I. Erwin |
Small Businesses: Showered With Praise, But Not Shown Much Love While Pentagon higher-ups and politicians shower praise on small businesses, in the muddy trenches of government contracting, it can be ugly. According to industry accounts, the entire procurement process is a path strewn with obstacles.  |
National Defense February 2016 Jon Harper |
Pentagon Chief Deals Blow to Navy's LCS The Navy's littoral combat ship/frigate program took a major hit recently when Secretary of Defense Ash Carter suggested the service should slash planned procurement from 52 to 40 ships, a 23 percent cut.  |
National Defense April 2010 Sandra I. Erwin |
Defense Contracting Methods Stifle Innovation The Pentagon's new industrial policy guidelines call for the Defense Department to tap the commercial sector and small niche businesses for new technologies.  |
National Defense November 2013 Sandra I. Erwin |
Companies See Bright Spots in Bleak Market There are still companies that have the stomach to invest in defense. Some actually view these tough times as an opportunity to win new business.  |
National Defense August 2010 Sandra I. Erwin |
Can the Pentagon Build 'Affordable' Weapons Systems? The average U.S. consumer can expect to buy a better computer or smart phone every year, for less than what he paid before. The Pentagon, alas, only gets raw deals.  |