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This week's big event was the Sea Air Space expo in National Harbour, Maryland. Leaders from the Naval and joint forces gathered to share the latest insights on a range of topics. Bill LaPlante spoke at a breakfast conversation on Reestablishing American Seapower with other panelists including Hondo Guerts. Check out the article below and here sharing LaPlante's assessment of Navy production and Guerts' view that the defense industrial base needs to shift from a vertically tiered supply chain to a "future industrial network."
- In a separate panel, NPS President VADM (Ret.) Ann Rondeau moderated a panel on Innovation through Education, Research and Technology. The panel charted a trajectory of innovation from STEM education outreach efforts targeted to what Heidi Shyu called "K through PhD" to how the Naval education enterprise prepares the creative problem solvers needed in today's competitive environment, something both VADM Jeff Hughes and Lt Gen Matthew Glavy explained, noting the critical role NPS plays in developing military leaders. VADM Frank Morley added perspective on how Navy acquisition is fielding innovative capabilities, calling out the impact of digital tools that are "bending the curve" of cost and speed of development. Read more about that panel in the NPS section below and here.
In other NPS news, last week the university hosted Secretary Del Toro and other senior leaders at the first Naval Space Summit, connecting ongoing research by students and faculty to the larger strategic needs of securing and utilizing the space domain across the joint forces.
The 20th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium is one month away! Get to know more about one of our keynote speakers, Nick Guertin, who's been a regular at the event for over a decade. Make your plans to join us!
In acquisition news, our top story offers analysis and recommendations on the challenges facing our munitions stockpile that continue to be depleted from the war in Ukraine (DoD announced this week the latest planned delivery of supplies, a combination of drawdown and contracting via the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative). Author Julia van der Colff suggests that replenishing this equipment can't follow the familiar old, lengthy processes and should instead create new acquisition processes around "cheap, easily reproducible, and effective weapons systems."
Finally, DoD has nominated a new director for the Defense Innovation Unit – Doug Beck, currently vice president at Apple. With the announcement comes a reorganization, returning the DIU director to reporting directly to the Secretary of Defense.
20th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium
10-11 May 2023
Monterey, CA
Join us in Monterey for the 20th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium. This week we're sharing some comments from one of our keynote speakers, the Honorable Nick Guertin, Director, Operational Test and Evaluation.
Did you know he's been presenting research at the symposium nearly every year since 2010, both as a leader in DoD and a researcher at the Software Engineering Institute? We asked him to share some thoughts on the value of presenting at this unique event. Here's what he said:
"I submitted my first symposium proposal on a subject that I felt strongly about but had not afforded myself the opportunity to think deeply on. I wanted to have my opinion shaped by collaboration, exposure to other research and structured introspection. It was a cleansing and broadening experience that helped me to develop the technical and business models I was working on for the Navy under the Open Architecture effort. I was hooked on the value of building on and learning more about ideas that needed exploration in a way that would help me with my work."
Hear more from Mr. Guertin on May 11 when he kicks off our second day of activities. His remarks will be livestreamed for virtual attendees–but he'll be in Monterey for the event.
- Want to be in the same room? Make your travel plans now!
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This Week's Top Story
Building a New American Arsenal
Julia van der Colff, War on the Rocks
Alarm bells are ringing at the Pentagon. The United States is rapidly depleting its munitions stockpiles to support the Ukrainian military. This support comes amid a serious backlog on the delivery of over $14 billion worth of arms shipments to Taiwan. The war in Ukraine has confirmed what was already widely known: America’s industrial base atrophied following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Despite efforts to reshore and bolster the manufacturing base, reaching the production capacity needed to replenish stockpiles and prepare for the possibility of full-scale conflict with China remains improbable. The current replacement times for critical inventories average over a staggering 13 years at current production capacity rates. Many of America’s advanced systems are produced on a very small number of assembly lines by an even smaller number of manufacturers. Production requires input from a shrinking labor force with knowledge of these systems, and supply chains are composed of rare earth metals, chips, and obscure mechanical parts from across the world that are very difficult to secure.
This challenge is not new and many have written about America’s ossified industrial base. Solutions range from updating and streamlining regulatory authorities to selling more expensive weapons systems like F-35s to allied nations. However, to begin solving the challenges facing the industrial base, the U.S. government should consider building a new “value arms” market that bolsters the American arsenal with massive quantities of cheap, easily reproducible, and effective weapons systems to create a hedge against current shortages and weaknesses. To accomplish this, the government should establish a special task force that leverages private industry and create new acquisition-management processes for emerging contractors with business models oriented towards the rapid production of inexpensive systems. This would enable the development of a new value arms market sector alongside the major existing defense contractors, boosting production capacities while fortifying against weaknesses.
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