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This week we saw a glimmer of functionality from Congress: the next continuing resolution passed, with two days to spare, and the Senate Rules Committee passed a temporary change that would allow military nominations to be considered en bloc. If passed by the full Senate, this rules change would circumvent Tuberville's hold. That vote isn't expected until after Thanksgiving.
We've seen a flurry of statements and articles about how horrible continuing resolutions are for DoD--retreading common ground to those following the conversation. The Defense News article pulls together the latest voices on the topic. In a rare bit of good news, the Navy succeeded in getting a waiver to begin building the second Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine.
DoD completed its annual audit, still failing. Just like last year, only 7 out of 30 came out with a "clean" assessment. Comptroller Mike McCord's comments on the audit included some good news stories, such as the use of bots to reduce over 600,000 hours of menial tasks from the defense accounting workforce.
Lots of news in artificial intelligence this week. The CDAO released its Responsible AI Tooklkit and announced a partnership with MIT to deliver on-demand AI courses and training. During the pilot of those courses, over 90% of participants found the training useful and relevant. It's open to DoD members with a .mil email.
The Defense Innovation Board held its latest meeting, at which it discussed its two current studies: Lowering the Barriers to Innovation and Building a DoD Data Economy. Results of these studies will come in January. You can watch the full board meeting to hear conversations about the role of contracting in lowering barriers to innovation.
This week, Secretary of the Navy held the first meeting of the Government Shipbuilders Council, bringing together the Navy, Army, Coast Guard, the Maritime Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They'll look at both commercial and military shipbuilding challenge.
CRS released and updated a series of reports on shipbuilding, indicating Congress is taking a deep look into the acquisition of specific ships and overall force structure.
Our top story catalogues the recent executive order and pending legislation on Buy American, to include how our international partners and allies feel about the various options. Consensus aligns with research we've seen presented at the symposium (shout out to Jerry McGinn, as one example) or shared in this newsletter -- the global supply chain is here to stay and needs to be factored in to efforts to reshore the defense manufacturing sector.
Next week is Thanksgiving! We'll be taking a break from the newsletter, with hopes that you too may seize the opportunity to nap on the couch while loved ones, food, and thankfulness fill your home.
After you recharge your batteries, take some time to write your proposal for the symposium, due the following week!
Symposium Proposals Due in Two Weeks!
We are accepting proposals for the 21st Annual Acquisition Research Symposium, to be held May 8-9, 2024.
This year our symposium takes up the theme of “Resourcing Innovation.” We are especially interested in papers that consider challenges and successes in providing the right resources – to include not just funding, but also people, training, acquisition authorities, time, supply chains, etc. – that can generate, transition, and deliver new warfighting capabilities and strategies.
As always, we welcome a wide range of papers sharing research of interest to the larger acquisition community.
Proposals are due by November 29, 2023.
This Week's Top Story
Defense manufacturers fear fallout from ‘Buy American’ politics
Joe Gould, Paul McLeary, and Connor O'Brien | Politico
President Joe Biden and an influential bloc of lawmakers from both parties want more U.S. military hardware to be made in America.
But the defense industry — the beneficiary of the movement — says now is the wrong time. Supply chain problems, towering global demands for weapons and the need to work with allies to get it all done means that the America First movement should wait.
The “Buy American” campaign, fueled by the promise of a domestic manufacturing boom and well-paying jobs right here at home, is gaining steam in Congress. Both versions of the can’t-fail National Defense Authorization Act contain provisions that require a certain percentage of American weapons be made domestically.
Yet the politics is crashing into the reality facing the defense industry. Already wobbling from the demands of arming Taiwan and Ukraine, American weapons makers have the added task of producing for Israel — while also rearming the U.S. after its shelves were raided to help other countries.
The unprecedented race to build weapons has blown a hole in the system, forcing the Pentagon to seek more help from Europe and elsewhere to fill orders for desperate customers in Taipei, Kyiv and Jerusalem.
“We don’t believe it’s the right time,” said Keith Webster, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Defense and Aerospace Council, when asked about the Buy American provisions.
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