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Happy Friday! It's the ides of March – the middle of the month, a fated day for Julius Caesar, and the deadline for settling debts in ancient Rome. Speaking of debts...
This week the big news is the release of the President's Budget Request for FY 2025, a month later than required by Congress. The topline number for DoD is $849 billion, up 4.2% from FY 2023 and up 0.9% from the FY 2024 President's Budget Request.
DoD leaders and service chiefs briefed Congress on their budgets this week. Across the board, leaders explained tradeoffs made to cut costs, often prioritizing near-term needs over long-term investments.
From the DoD press release: "the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) of 2023 topline limitation required the Department to make some targeted reductions to programs that will not deliver capability to the force until the 2030s to preserve and enhance the Total Force’s ability to fight and win in the near term. Examples of these targeted reductions in the FY 2025 budget request include the rephasing of the Navy’s Next Generation Fighter program and Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance program, and the reduction of Space Forces’ demonstration and experimentation tranche."
Both Kathleen Hicks and Heidi Shyu blasted Congress for the continuing reliance on continuing resolutions.
- Hicks opened her remarks by saying, "I want to highlight how devastating the failure to pass last year's budget is for ensuring our national defense and global security."
- Shyu quipped that RDER funds and experiments have been slowed by what is essentially half a year of funding over a two-year period: “We started RDER experimentation last year. Remember the POM’s a two-year process, [so] we only got money last year — after the CR!”
We have a whole section on stories covering the budget. Even a quick scan of headlines may offer some insights. Analysts will be continuing to dig into the details over the next few weeks.
Our top story this week comes from the Army, which has released a new directive on software development and acquisition that embraces continuous implementation and agile processes.
In an interview with Federal News Network, Michael Brown shared that while DIU was able to transition about 50% of its projects into production contracts, those $5 billion in contracts constituted a tiny percentage of the overall $1 trillion defense budget.
Craig Martell, the inaugural Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, is leaving next month, to be replaced by Radha Plumb, currently Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. This moves comes amid concerns about CDAO leadership and the ability of the office to meet its goals. Over the past two years, it has chalked up several accomplishments, including the Tradewind Solution Marketplace and the 2023 Data, Analytics, and AI Adoption Strategy.
In ARP news, check out student research exploring the use of knowledge-based approaches in defense acquisition.
And we're thrilled to confirm the Hon. Nickolas Guertin will be joining us as a keynote speaker in Monterey. Last year he spoke about his role as Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, and delightfully included how he's learned from research he created for and presented at the symposium over the years. We're excited to hear his views now that he's the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition.
The symposium is less than two months away! Have you booked airfare yet?
21st Annual Acquisition Research Symposium
Have you checked out the program lately? We have 24 panels of thought-provoking research and leadership perspective, including the crowd favorite student poster show and reception.
Register now to join us in Monterey or online.
This Week's Top Story
Software revamp aims to align US Army with industry best practices
Colin Demarest, C4ISRNET
The U.S. Army is overhauling how it develops and adopts software, the lifeblood of high-tech weaponry, vehicles and battlefield information-sharing.
The service on March 9 rolled out a policy, dubbed Enabling Modern Software Development and Acquisition Practices, enshrining the revisions. Officials said the measure brings them closer to private-sector expectations, making business simpler and more inclusive.
“We thought this was important to do this now, and issue this policy now, because of how critical software is to the fight right now,” Margaret Boatner, the deputy assistant secretary of the Army for strategy and acquisition reform, told reporters at the Pentagon. “More than ever before, software is actually a national-security imperative.”
Consequences of the policy include: changing the way requirements are written, favoring high-level needs statements and concision over hyper-specific directions; employing alternative acquisition and contracting strategies; reducing duplicative tests and streamlining cybersecurity processes; embracing a sustainment model that recognizes programs can and should be updated; and establishing expert cohorts, such as the prospective Digital Capabilities Contracting Center of Excellence at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
While the policy is effective immediately, the different reforms will take different amounts of time to be realized. The contacting center, for example, has several months to get up and running. No additional appropriations are needed to make the transitions, according to Boatner.
Read the directive:
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