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Acquisition Research Program Newsletter

June 13, 2025       —       Issue 243

Happy Friday!

GAO has been BUSY this week, issuing a slew of reports on acquisition, Army modernization, weapons systems, and DOD efforts to prevent fraud.

On Capitol Hill, we got new legislation to accelerate weapons buying and shore up the DIB... plus some contentious hearings around the very delayed Pentagon budget.

Elsewhere, the Navy has a plan to incentivize commercial acquisitions...

...Lockheed Martin launches an "AI Fight Club"...

...and Booz Allen Hamilton is developing high-velocity autonomous systems using Formula One race cars.

And be sure to check out this roundtable on Navy and Army Acquisition, chaired by Michael Williamson, LtGen, USA (ret.), from the NPS 22nd Annual Acquisition Research Symposium & Innovation Summit last month.

Enjoy!

This Week's Top Stories 

Thunderstorm clouds roll over the U.S. Capitol on July 25, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

HASC leaders release new defense acquisition reform plan to SPEED weapons buying
Valerie Insinna, Breaking Defense

New legislation proposed the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) aims to reform the United States' defense acquisition process, emphasizing speeding up weapons procurement and strengthening the defense industrial base (DIB).

• Acquisition Reform: The SPEED Act, introduced by HASC leaders Mike Rogers and Adam Smith, is designed to speed up weapons procurement by moving away from a system that prioritizes regulatory compliance over rapid technology development and fielding.
• DIB Challenges: The bill asserts that the "fragility of today’s DIB" is a direct consequence of "misguided, acquisition regulations," which make doing business with the DOD too expensive, unpredictable, and risky for private industry.
• Requirements Overhaul: A major focus of the bill is overhauling the DOD’s requirements process, with a goal to shorten the timeline from around 800 days to about five months.
• Key Pillars: The SPEED Act lays out four other key pillars for reform, including empowering program executive officers to better align acquisition with warfighter priorities, reducing burdensome cost and accounting regulations to attract commercial industry, strengthening the DIB through a consortium to address supply chain issues, and improving the defense acquisition workforce

Related: The defense acquisition system is broken — it’s time for an overhaul 

Senior GOP senator accuses White House of trying to ‘game the budget’ in shipbuilding funding 
Justin Katz, Breaking Defense

The White House's FY26 Navy shipbuilding request plunged to $20.8 billion -- a drastic reduction from the Biden administration’s FY25 request of $37 billion - sparking criticism on Capitol Hill.

• Budget Gaming: Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., accused the administration of "gaming the budget" by relying on reconciliation funds as a substitute, rather than a supplement, to the base budget, thereby ignoring "congressional intent".
• Key Underfunding: The budget proposal underfunds the Columbia-class program by approximately $4 billion and does not request any Virginia-class submarines or Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in the base budget. This contradicts congressional expectations, as reconciliation bills had included supplemental funding for a second Virginia-class submarine and followed a pattern of adding a third destroyer every other year.
• Industry Impact: Sen. Wicker warned that failing to budge for two destroyers in FY26 destabilizes the shipbuilding industry, shows bad faith, and slows shipbuilding efforts.

Lt. David Bailey, from Millersville, Maryland, assigned to air department’s primary flight control and air damage control division, gives the signal for an aircraft to take off from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) while underway in the Pacific Ocean, Oct. 15, 2024. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class August Clawson)

Navy contracting officers will soon see new incentives to ‘go commercial’
Brandi Vincent, DefenseScoop

The Department of the Navy is initiating a "Commercial Acquisitions First" campaign, including new policies and training, to fundamentally reform its procurement process.

• Performance Shift: The current system evaluates acquisition program managers based on "cost, schedule, and performance," with performance strictly tied to meeting requirements documents. This compliance-heavy approach often prevents Navy purchasers from taking necessary risks with existing and emerging technologies. The new strategy seeks to shift to an "output- and outcomes-based approach for measuring success".

DoD fraud detection efforts at ‘starting line,’ watchdog says
Anastasia Obis, Federal News Network

The Department of Defense's efforts to detect fraud are severely underdeveloped, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.

• Data Challenge: A significant hurdle is the sheer volume and poor quality of DOD's data, which is "massive" and difficult to work with, requiring extensive cleaning before it can be effectively analyzed for fraudulent activity.
• Unaddressed GAO: As of May 2025, 13 of 17 fraud risk management recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) since 2019 remain unaddressed by the Pentagon.
• Strategy Promised: The DOD has pledged to deliver an updated anti-fraud strategy by the end of July, intending to make data analytics an explicit requirement within that plan. This strategy has been delayed five times previously over seven months.

GAO Report: DOD Fraud Risk Management: DOD Should Expeditiously and Effectively Implement Fraud Risk Management Leading Practices 

Mapping the EOs, Memos, and Actions
Pete Modigliani and Matt MacGregor, Defense Tech and Acquisition

Keep track of the rapidly changing DOD acquisition and innovation landscape with this comprehensive overview of recent executive orders, memos, policies, and timelines.

ARP and NPS News

Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan speaks with Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) students about their research projects during a visit to the NPS, May 29. The visit served to underscore the Department of the Navy’s commitment to leveraging advanced education, research, and applied innovation to strengthen naval warfighting capabilities and strategic advantage. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Chloe N. McAfee)

DDM Students Showcase Research for SECNAV

Nine graduating DDM students were recently selected to participate in a poster show in honor of the SECNAV John Phelan's inaugural visit to the Naval Postgraduate School campus in Monterey.

NPS students conduct research designed to bring essential capability to the warfighter, and they work closely with the Fleet and Commands to ensure that they are providing relevant solutions that solve real problems.

The poster presentations provided the NAVSEC with an opportunity to see the impactful research being produced by NPS students.

Congratulations to those who were chosen to attend:

• Jonathan Forbes, ENS, USN & David Giba, ENS, USN
  Strategic Acquisition Framework for Manned-Unmanned Teaming in Naval Aviation
• Donavon Guhin, ENS, USN & Britton Dedmon, ENS, USN
  Legacy Naval Flight School Pathway VS. An Expedited Naval Helicopter Flight School Approach (COPT-R and CORPS)
• Uziel Ladaw, LCDR, CEC, USN
  Evaluating NAVFAC’S Preventive Maintenance Strategy: Cost-Effectiveness and Lifecycle Impacts on Equipment Longevity
• Dell Barnes, MAJ, USA, Russell Britain, CPT, USA, & Jeffrey Li, MAJ, USA
  Analysis of MOSA Implementation on the FLRAA Program Through an Evaluation of Cost, Performance, Schedule, and Risk
• Jason Mariscal, LCDR, USN & Jeff Cornish, LCDR, USN
  Strategic Alignment at Speed: Naval Special Warfare’s Digital Shift
• Danny Flanagan, LT, USN
  Addressing PACFLT’s Surface Ship Maintenance Challenges: Leveraging Japanese and South Korean Ship Repair Capabilities to Overcome Domestic Capacity Constraints

Read more about the SECNAV's visit here.

Cryoacoustics Researchers Give Critical Edge to Icy Arctic Naval Operations
Dan Linehan, Naval Postgraduate School

Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) researchers, in collaboration with the Arctic Submarine Laboratory (ASL), conducted critical cryoacoustics experiments in the Arctic in February 2025. This research aims to significantly enhance U.S. naval operations and submarine warfighting capabilities in the increasingly contested Arctic. 

• Student-Led Research: U.S. Navy Lt. Caroline Kelly, an officer-scholar studying meteorology and oceanography (METOC) at NPS, conducted this cryoacoustics research in the Arctic for her NPS thesis, which aims to improve understanding of soundwave propagation through ice, water, and air.
• Key Partnership: Since 2018, ASL and NPS have collaborated to gain a deeper understanding of the Arctic Ocean's physical properties. ASL hosts NPS at its biennial Operation Ice Camp, providing students opportunities for independent research that ultimately increases submarine warfighting abilities.

Roundtable on Navy and Army Acquisition - NPS 22nd Annual Acquisition Research Symposium & Innovation Summit

“How do we harness the current momentum to use it, to make the right changes to enable all parts of our defense ecosystem to be more successful?”

That’s the big question Michael Williamson, LtGen, USA (ret.), posed to the plenary panel of acquisition leaders assembled on May 8 at Creating Synergy for Informed Change: Transitioning Technology to the Warfighter, the 22nd Annual Acquisition Research Symposium and Innovation Summit.

Williamson drilled down by asking panelists to consider how recent acquisition innovations such as the software acquisition pathway, commercial solutions openings, and OTAs create opportunities for established defense contractors and not just the small businesses and nontraditional contractors that such mechanisms are often associated with.

Listen to this insightful conversation, now available here. 

Acquisition

Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash

DoD addresses two big challenges to make CMMC a reality
Jason Miller, Federal News Network

DOD is nearing finalization of the second crucial rule for CMMC, which will modify the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations (DFARS). This rule is expected to be published later this summer and will define Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and establish CMMC solicitation provisions.

• Regulatory Hurdles: Initial delays for the CMMC DFARS rule were caused by a Trump administration regulatory freeze and an executive order requiring the repeal of ten rules for every new one. However, the DOD confirms that CMMC is not being abandoned despite these past challenges.
• Cost Reduction: A successful pilot program involving cloud service providers (CSPs) and a managed service provider (MSP) has demonstrated a path to significantly reduce the cost and time for companies to achieve CMMC compliance.

Related: NDIA POLICY POINTS: Resources to Help Industry Navigate CMMC 

Pentagon readies revamp of RMF process for industry feedback 
Jared Serbu, Federal News Network

The Pentagon is actively reforming its Risk Management Framework (RMF) process to streamline cybersecurity assessments, moving towards continuous monitoring and leveraging industry feedback and AI to accelerate software deployment and enhance visibility into the supply chain.

• AI-Powered Approval: The new framework will integrate AI and large language modeling on the backend of the DOD Enterprise Mission Assurance Support Service (eMASS) portal. This technology will review submitted artifacts, such as third-party software bills of materials (SBOMs) and risk assessments, for anomalies, potentially speeding up the approval process from "days, not months, not years" to "hours".
• Centralized Data: The eMASS portal will serve as a "living, breathing repository" of information on industry partners, including cybersecurity and financial health. This repository will centralize DOD's knowledge about how various components are using specific software and track potential vulnerabilities.
• Acquisition Insights: This centralized data could also inform DOD's procurement decisions by shedding light on demand signals from across the department.

Related: Inside the Pentagon CIO’s push to overhaul antiquated software acquisition practices

Revolutionary FAR Overhaul: Second Round (FAR Part 10 – Market Research)
Christopher Yukins, Public Procurement International

The "Revolutionary FAR Overhaul" (RFO) initiative has released its second set of modest changes, this time to FAR Part 10 (Market Research).

• Controversial Implementation: The overhaul is being implemented through class deviations approved by the FAR Council and adopted by individual civilian agencies, without public publication or an opportunity for comment.
• Legal Scrutiny: This use of class deviations, particularly their non-publication in the Federal Register and lack of agency-specific justification, raises significant legal questions and may invite court challenges. Legal precedent suggests such changes, if they have a significant external effect, must be published for public comment.

Resource: Trump Administration: Government Contracts Policy and News Tracker (from GW Law) 

Resource: Decoding the FAR Rewrite

Establishing Dedicated Unmanned PEOs
Pete Modigliani and Matt MacGregor, Defense Tech and Acquisition

The authors argue for creating dedicated Program Executive Offices (PEOs) for unmanned systems in the Navy, in order to provide better visibility, resourcing, and management for emerging unmanned capabilities, which are currently competing for limited funding within broader warfighting portfolios.

Innovation

Image: Midjourney

Coding Defense Solutions on the Fly with AI
Sean Lavelle, War on the Rocks

AI-powered software development is poised to revolutionize the U.S. military's acquisition and problem-solving. Achieving this potential requires systemic changes within the Department of Defense, including robust cybersecurity measures, secure platform enclaves, and a shift towards rapid, iterative development.

• Rapid Development: AI tools like OpenAI's GPT-4.1 and Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro drastically reduce software development from weeks to hours, enabling functional applications with thousands of code lines to be built without human intervention. This fundamentally transforms how program offices acquire capabilities and combat units solve problems.
• Portfolio Strategy: AI facilitates a "make more bets" approach, allowing managers to prototype multiple solutions (e.g., a maintenance work scheduler, a defect root-cause analysis tool) quickly and make confident decisions on scaling, refining, or eliminating solutions based on measured value.

Lockheed Martin launches ‘AI Fight Club’ to test algorithms for warfare
Sandra Erwin, SpaceNews

Lockheed Martin is launching a new initiative called "AI Fight Club," a virtual battleground designed to test artificial intelligence algorithms for military applications. This program aims to accelerate AI adoption in warfare by providing a DOD-standard evaluation environment for various companies, especially smaller vendors lacking necessary infrastructure, while also serving as a vetting tool for potential suppliers for Lockheed Martin.

What Defense Tech Firms Can Learn From Formula One
Shaun Waterman, Air and Space Forces

Booz Allen Hamilton is leveraging its involvement in autonomous Formula One racing to pioneer high-speed AI development, tackling the significant challenges of operating autonomous systems at extreme velocities and under harsh conditions. This collaborative effort serves as a crucial unclassified testbed, aiming to transfer insights on human-like adaptability and performance to accelerate AI adoption for military applications.

Industry

Image: Midjourney

A Guide to Refactoring the Defense-Industrial Base
Shands Pickett and Zach Beecher, War on the Rocks

The U.S. defense-industrial base faces a critical divide between traditional prime contractors and agile non-traditional tech companies, leading to capability gaps and inefficiencies. To overcome this, a comprehensive "refactoring" is urgently needed, integrating these two sectors into a software-defined, commercial-first powerhouse through specific policy and programmatic reforms to better counter adversaries.

DoD S-band needed for Golden Dome, border defense threatened by spectrum auction plans: CSIS
Theresa Hitchens and Carley Welch, Breaking Defense

Congressional plans to auction off the Defense Department's vital S-band spectrum for commercial 5G networks are proceeding despite warnings that this would jam crucial military radars for missile defense and border security. Experts deem selling this "Goldilocks zone" spectrum a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea" due to high-power radar interference concerns and the unproven nature of dynamic sharing solutions.

Arsenal of Democracy: Myth or Model? Lessons for 21st-Century Industrial Mobilization Planning | CSBA
Tyler Hacker, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA)

This CSBA study explores the urgent need for 21st-century industrial mobilization planning to meet potential immense munitions demands in a protracted war, particularly with China. It analyzes historical lessons from World War II to inform how the U.S. can prepare its contemporary defense industrial base by leveraging its unique competitive advantages.

Recently Released Government Accountability Office Reports

Close-up of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sign outside its main headquarters in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

Defense Acquisition Reform: Persistent Challenges Require New Iterative Approaches to Delivering Capability with Speed
Government Accountability Office

This report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that DOD faces persistent challenges in its weapon system acquisition process, taking nearly 12 years to deliver initial capabilities due to a rigid, linear approach that struggles to keep pace with emerging threats. Radical reform is needed, moving beyond current "workarounds" to adopt iterative development practices seen in leading commercial companies to deliver state-of-the-art capabilities with speed and scale.

Army Modernization: Leading Practices Could Better Support Delivery of Artillery and Missiles
Government Accountability Office

GAO reports that the Army's efforts to modernize long-range artillery and missiles for large-scale combat operations have seen mixed success due to inconsistent application of iterative product development practices. GAO recommends adopting leading iterative approaches, including digital engineering, to improve future system delivery and address urgent capability gaps.

Weapon Systems Annual Assessment: DOD Leaders Should Ensure That Newer Programs Are Structured for Speed and Innovation
Government Accountability Office

GAO reports that DOD continues to face significant challenges in weapon system acquisition, with rising costs and an average delivery time of nearly 12 years for initial capabilities. Despite reforms like the MTA pathway, programs struggle with delays due to a failure to consistently adopt leading iterative product development practices early on.

Priority Open Recommendations: Department of Defense
Government Accountability Office

GAO maintains a list of critical "priority open recommendations" for DOD, aiming to drive significant operational improvements and financial savings across key areas of national defense. As of May 2025, DOD has 79 such recommendations that require urgent attention for continued progress.

Research

The Bell V-280 Valor, developed for the Army's Joint Multi-Role Technical Demonstrator program as a pre-cursor to the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft. (Photo courtesy of Bell)

Plug and Play Acquisition (Implementing MOSA)
Capt Davin S. Johnson, USAF & Capt Triston M. Halbert, USAF, Naval Postgraduate School

This research examines how DOD’s implementation of MOSA -- particularly in programs like the F-35, V-280 Valor, and Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle (LUSV) -- compares to successful industry use and applications. The authors extract lessons and best practices, emphasizing the need to overcome obstacles like technical data rights and vendor lock-ins by reducing requirements and fostering cross-service collaboration to encourage interoperability and streamline innovation.

Enabling Data Management of Intellectual Property License Rights for the Department of Defense
Mr. Benjamin McMartin, Esq., Dr. John (Jerry) G. McGinn, et al., Acquisition Innovation Research Center

This research examines various strategies for improving DOD management of intellectual property (IP) license rights, including leveraging commercial best practices, data structuring, and advanced technologies like AI and NLP to optimize data usability and efficiency.

Events

Future Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) Industry Day
17 June 2025
Washington, DC

Training & Simulation Industry Symposium (TSIS) 2025
17-18 June 2025
Orlando, FL

Other Transaction Authority (OTA) Workshop
18 June 2025
Norfolk, VA

Advanced Manufacturing for Defense
24-25 June 2025
Los Angeles, CA

MTO Spark Tank
24-25 July 2025
Aurora, CO

NCMA World Congress 2025
13-16 July 2025
Grapevine, TX

VIP START
24-26 June 2025
Potomac, MD

Navy and Marine Corps Procurement Conference
29-30 July 2025
Norfolk, VA

2025 Air and Space Summit
31 July 2025
McLean, VA

MODSIM World 2025
18-20 August 2025
Norfolk, VA

2025 Navy Summit
26 August 2025
McLean, VA

2025 Emerging Technologies for Defense
27-29 August 2025
Washington, DC

I/ITSEC 2025: Optimizing Training: Ensuring Operational Dominance
1-4 December 2025
Orlando, FL

One more thing...

A modified Regulus 1 cruise missile, carrying mail, takes off from the USS Barbero on June 8, 1959. Smithsonian National Postal Museum photo

When the US Navy tried to send mail using a missile
Nicholas Slayton, Task & Purpose

On June 8, 1959, the U.S. Navy conducted a unique experiment by launching a modified, nuclear-capable Regulus 1 cruise missile filled with 3,000 letters from the USS Barbero submarine to Florida, aiming to demonstrate the speed and accuracy of "missile mail".

• Historic First: Then-Postmaster General Arthur A. Summerfield endorsed the modern missile mail idea and called the 1959 test the "first known official use of missiles by any post office department of any nation" for this purpose. He ambitiously predicted global mail delivery within hours via guided missiles "Before man reaches the moon".
• Test Details: The SSM-N-8A Regulus I missile had its nuclear warhead removed and was loaded with 3,000 letters, including some addressed to U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower. The missile traveled approximately 100 miles in just over 20 minutes, landing on a runway in Florida where the mail was then sorted and sent to its recipients.
• Costly Failure: Despite the successful demonstration, the excessive cost of the missiles and their limited carrying capacity ensured that missile mail never became a standard postal service.

Maureen Lauder, PhD, Communications Manager
Karey Shaffer, MBA, Program Manager
Acquisition Research Program
Naval Postgraduate School
e: ARPEditor@nps.edu 

Note: Article summaries were generated with the help of AI tools.

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