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Happy Friday!
This week the Commission on the National Defense Strategy released its report, continuing the tradition of such an assessment every four years.
- Overall, they argue that DoD, as well as the larger national security apparatus, is under-resourced and too bureaucratic to meet current threats and multiple potential war theaters.
- It also calls out Congress with some blistering language: "Congress, as it has come to function in recent years, has become a major impediment to national security." As evidence, it cites the reliance on continuing resolutions and the nine-month hold on confirming appointed military officials.
- The big picture recommendation is to truly implement the "integrated deterrence" called for by the NDS. The commission calls for an "all elements of national power" approach "to coordinate and leverage resources across DoD, the rest of the executive branch, the private sector, civil society, and U.S. allies and partners."
- They call for better informing American citizens of the threats facing our nation, and for reminding American companies that part of their mission is to support national security.
Yesterday the Senate Appropriations Committee passed the FY 2025 defense spending bill, with a topline of $852.2 billion.
- It shows willingness to move past the FRA spending caps, but still needs to be reconciled with the House spending bill's topline of $833 billion.
The DoD Inspector General announced plans to evaluate the Replicator initiative, particularly "the effectiveness with which the Services and Defense Innovation Unit selected capabilities to meet the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s operational needs.”
In Air Force news, Secretary Frank Kendall announced this week that the NGAD is officially paused.
- In contrast, momentum continues on the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, with five companies selected to build the autonomy system. This is in addition to the two companies, Anduril and General Atomics, earlier selected to build prototypes of the aircraft itself.
The Navy is standing up a new maritime industrial base program office focused on construction and sustainment.
- Jay Stefany (a previous symposium keynote speaker) will lead the office, leaving his position as principal civilian deputy to ASN (RDA), which will be filled by Brett Seidle.
Our top story brings details of the newly stood up Air Force integrated capabilities office, which comes with a new acquisition approach.
A GAO report out this week on managing human trafficking in DoD contracts cites a 2021 ARP-supported thesis on the topic:
- "DOD’s trafficking expert sponsored a postgraduate student group’s analysis that examined 3 years of contract spending in countries, including Tier 2 Watch List and Tier 3 countries, for personal protective equipment, construction, and food and food services."
- Read the full GAO report in our Research section, and check out the student thesis, which includes a prototype dashboard that visualizes their data findings.
And professors in our Department of Defense Management provide analysis of defense innovation and industrial policy, arguing that the same approach taken by the CHIPS Act to shore up semiconductor supply chains and manufacturing capability should be applied to the defense sector.
This Week's Top Story
Air Force’s New Integrated Capabilities Office Aims to Overhaul Acquisition
Shaun Waterman, Air & Space Forces Magazine
The Air Force’s new Integrated Capabilities Office (ICO) aims to tear up the department’s playbook when it comes to buying, developing, and fielding new technologies, Tim Grayson, the ICO director, said July 31.
The ICO will press to replace the traditional acquisition process with a new “compressed” process which would issue contracts to industry on the basis of “attributes” rather than requirements, he said during event hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
Attributes “look like requirements,” but don’t set exact figures in stone, he said. “Instead, it’s ‘Here are the kinds of things I care about, here’s some targets for numbers against these characteristics.’ Now, I can use that to get industry on contract, and start doing detailed design studies.”
An attributes-based process made for better outcomes, Grayson said, because of the iterative discussions they allow. “Industry can say, ‘This attribute, this is really hard. Do you really mean this?’… And the operator might say, ‘It seemed like the right thing, I don’t care that much.’” But even where the operator reaffirms the need, “they can explain the nuance of why they care, and industry might have a different idea of how to satisfy that.”
Using attributes “allows that dialogue, and then once you converge on something, we can still codify that in a formal requirement,” Grayson said.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced the ICO in February, one of a slew of changes designed to “re-optimize” the Air and Space Forces for great power competition with China and Russia.
The office was formally stood up in July.
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