|
Happy Friday!
Once again, the big news this week is about the budget. The House and Senate appropriations committees have released their FY2024 defense and other remaining spending bills. The defense budget includes some funds for Ukraine, multiyear procurement for some munitions, extra money for Replicator -- and of course, much much more. The bill will need to pass in both houses of Congress today to avoid a shutdown and put an end to the latest round of continuing resolutions.
The Reagan Foundation released its second National Security Innovation Base Report Card this year, coordinated with the NSIB Summit, with keynote speaker Kathleen Hicks. Her remarks list off the investments made thus far in areas including microelectronics, infrastructure, shipyards, and submarine industrial base. She also railed against continuing resolutions.
We've gotten some promising updates from NATO's DIANA accelerator, which is projecting new energy resilience projects will be delivered in the next two years. DIANA is also expanding into 28 countries, increasing the number of tech accelerator sites and test centers substantially.
DoD has updated the Strategic Management Plan for FY 2022-2026 to include the FY 2024 Annual Performance Plan.
Our top story summarizes research from a survey of over 800 companies who sell to the federal government. The findings highlight familiar challenges and preferences, and the full research discusses how contractor preferences change based on the company's size and other factors. Companies who work only with the federal government, for instance, want faster processes. Companies with commercial revenue are more interested in bigger contracts.
In other acquisition news, we have a pair of stories about American contractors who sold Chinese technology to the federal government, falsely claiming it was made in the USA. One story first broke in 2019 and involves networked security cameras. That company has now pled guilty to fraud, following the individual pleas of company executives. The more recent story involves the passing off of low-quality ballistic protective equipment manufactured in China as higher quality American-made gear.
The Congressional Research Service is looking into using AI to create summaries of legislation, acknowledging the human team faces a backlog with this task. So far, AI-generated summaries haven't met their criteria for accuracy.
DoD's Inspector General launched a website providing oversight of Ukraine funding for the public. And in Congress, there's potential for continuing funding for Ukraine via no-interest loans.
The Navy has released its latest 30-year shipbuilding plan, with two variations based on funding availability. Both options show ship numbers decrease before growing again.
In ARP news, we've uploaded a webinar from last year on shipbuilding acquisition, with a case study on the Coast Guard's Offshore Patrol Cutter. The conversation covers a lot of territory and does so with a few humorous illustrations. Facilitated by ARP's Principal Investigator Dr. Bob Mortlock, it's worth checking out.
21st Annual Acquisition Research Symposium
In person attendance is limited to the first 300 registered attendees! Register now to make sure you don't miss out on the 24 panels of thought-provoking research and leadership perspective.
Register now to join us in Monterey or online.
This Week's Top Story
Commentary: 3 areas the DoD should fix to rapidly integrate new tech
Jeff Decker and Noah Sheinbaum, Breaking Defense
Thanks to efforts across successive administrations, it is now taken as fact that the Defense Department needs to bring in the commercial tech sector to help fill critical gaps. And yet, while everyone talks the talk, the success rate of working with the private tech sector remains staggeringly low — with just 1 percent of the $411 billion of Defense Department contracts going to venture-backed companies last year, according to one estimate.
The Pentagon needs to invest more of its budget to transition commercial technologies into defense capabilities. But even well-financed commercial companies struggle to drive substantial defense revenue and reach the right decision makers in the Defense Department to successfully get a contract.
In an effort to understand what is causing this inability to move forward, Front Door Defense, in partnership with the Tech Transfer for Defense program at Stanford University, conducted a recent survey of more than 800 companies doing business with the US government. The biggest takeaway from the poll: companies need more than just funding. A lack of access, clarity, and confidence are significant impediments to meaningful partnership between companies and the Defense Department.
Giving commercial companies a fair chance demands that the Defense Department swiftly remove these barriers. Based on our findings, here are three key areas that would get the ball rolling.
Improve access: One area highlighted in the survey is access. Access to programmatic customers is paramount because the personnel who use military products are distinct from those who buy them. In the past decade, the Defense Department created a variety of innovation organizations to liaise with commercial companies. It’s now easier than ever before for companies to meet potential users for their products, and receive useful feedback. That’s good, but not enough: companies also need access to program offices with budgets to sell their tech.
|
