Acquisition
The Osprey MK-III waits to take off at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Aug. 15, 2025. The unmanned aerial system made its first flight test with a third-party developer's alternative navigation software connected. Photo credit: Credit:Samuel King Jr.
Acquisition Transformation: How to Make it Last
Elaine McCusker & John G. Ferrari, War on the Rocks
New acquisition transformation efforts emphasize speed and commercial solutions, but their lasting success hinges on resolving a fundamental friction point between DOD’s need for financial flexibility and Congress's constitutional obligation to control military spending through appropriations.
- Budget Flexibility: The budget structure must be rebuilt by collapsing thousands of existing program elements into broader mission portfolios, such as a single "Unmanned Aerial Systems Portfolio," which would fund the entire lifecycle (research, procurement, and sustainment) under one flexible line.
- Tiered Reprogramming: Reprogramming authority should be redefined by replacing the outdated fixed dollar thresholds with a tiered, percentage-based reprogramming model tied to the overall size of the portfolio. For example, portfolio managers could be allowed to move up to 5 percent of funds internally, while the DOD comptroller could move 10 percent of a portfolio across services, with anything beyond requiring congressional notification.
- Outcome Accountability: In return for greater flexibility, the Department should provide real-time transparency through digital budget dashboards accessible to Congress and commit to routine portfolio performance reports that track crucial metrics like speed-to-field, operational effectiveness, and cost variance.
Pentagon's new MOSA push could accelerate Navy's hybrid fleet, experts say
Abby Shepherd, Inside Defense
The Pentagon has instructed all military services to prioritize the use of Modular Open Systems Architecture (MOSA) in their acquisition strategies to the maximum extent possible. This reform is expected to be particularly beneficial to the Navy, as experts suggest it could accelerate the development and rapid deployment of a hybrid fleet by emphasizing modularity across platforms.
- Enhancing Platform Modularity: By implementing MOSA, the Navy can more easily integrate new components and upgrades across its systems, ensuring its platforms remain relevant and effective while also achieving a reduction in life-cycle costs.
Now that the shutdown is over, contracting officers have a lot to catch up on
Terry Gerton, Federal News Network
This interview with former GSA Administrator Emily Murphy outlines some of the challenges facing contractors and contracting officers in the wake of the shutdown. New defense priorities and the recently completed FAR overhaul are intended to make acquisition simpler, faster, cheaper. But the lack of standardized guidance, combined with an overworked and undertrained workforce, is expected to make the transition painful in the coming months.
Innovation
A logistics officer with Marine Wing Communications Squadron 28 conducts inventory of squadron assets at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. (Orlanys Diaz Figueroa)
The Prototype-to-Partner Model
Lieutenant Commander Sean Lavelle & Lieutenant Commander Zach Fisher, U.S. Navy, Proceedings
The authors propose a new software development and acquisition strategy for the Navy that aims to empower Sailors and Marines to rapidly build initial program prototypes using AI tools, effectively connecting their immediate, tacit operational knowledge directly to the scaling capabilities of defense contractors.
- Empower Warfighters: The model relies on giving Sailors the "digital firepower" — specifically, constantly improving AI coding assistants — to build software prototypes, often in just hours, even if they have minimal computer science knowledge. This capability allows service members to solve their own mission-critical problems instantly.
- Fix Status Quo: The current system fails because industry wastes time and money building software without deep user context, while warfighters lack the development infrastructure to scale their ideas beyond informal side projects.
- Industry Partnership: Cleared defense contractors would access a classified repository containing prototypes built by operators, leveraging commercial expertise and scale while grounding development in real-world user context.
- Concept Tested: A five-day course in August 2025 demonstrated the model’s viability. Twenty-three participants, only one of whom had prior software experience, successfully created at least two working tools for administrative and tactical planning.
Replicator 3 Should Be the Sustainment Revolution
War on the Rocks, Nick Johnson
Replicator, the Pentagon's initiative to field thousands of autonomous systems quickly, needs a third phase dedicated to building the sustainment network necessary to maintain the effectiveness of that force.
- Unmanned Myth: The persistent belief that unmanned systems require a smaller sustainment tail is false, particularly for the large, sensor-laden, maritime systems necessary for the Indo-Pacific.
- Adaptive Infrastructure: The future sustainment network must be adaptive, dispersed, hardened, and semi-autonomous to operate under persistent threat and limited resupply.
- Fund Readiness: To institutionalize sustainment, Replicator-3 must mandate three efforts: tying a minimum sustainment ratio to procurement budgets to fund forward infrastructure and manpower upfront; ensuring industry incentives reward resilience (uptime and dual-source supply chains) over output; and using foreign military financing to build regional, partner-led sustainment capacity.
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Industry
Secretary of the Army, Hon. Dan Driscoll, visits U.S. Army Rangers assigned to 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, at Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, Ga., August 26, 2025. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Resnick)
The defense industry ‘conned the American people and the Pentagon’: Army Secretary
Carley Welch, Breaking Defense
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has announced a massive rework of the Army’s acquisition structure, shifting focus dramatically away from traditional prime defense contractors toward commercial solutions.
- Commercial First: The Army aims to flip its purchasing ratio from 90 percent purpose-built military solutions and 10 percent commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) to the opposite: 90 percent commercially available and only 10 percent military-specific.
- Industry Fault: Driscoll has argued that the defense industry has historically "conned" the Pentagon into a preference for specialized military solutions, when commercial alternatives are often equal or superior.
- Customer Blame: Driscoll acknowledged that the Army has been a "less-than-perfect customer," creating and incentivizing the difficult processes that require a massive balance sheet to withstand.
Are New Defense Companies Giving Away Sensitive Info Through Marketing?
Jake Chapman, War on the Rocks
Emerging defense technology companies, driven by the necessity for marketing to secure funding and government attention, are inadvertently undermining modern deterrence by publicly oversharing sensitive information.
- Deterrence Shift: The previous model of deterrence relied on showing overwhelming U.S. force, but today’s environment requires creating uncertainty in peer adversaries, as rivals increasingly match or surpass U.S. capacity in key areas.
- Startup Survival: Newer defense firms, unlike established primes like Lockheed, need visibility to raise capital, attract industry partners, and signal relevance to government buyers, forcing them to resort to splashy marketing.
- Free Intelligence: This marketing, seen in glossy videos and detailed podcast interviews, acts as a free intelligence feed, revealing not just current capabilities but also R&D roadmaps, performance data, and core intellectual property.
- Counterintuitive Fix: The proposed solution is a two-part fix: dramatically expanding the number and types of people holding security clearances (including founders, investor.
Boeing defense workers ratify new contract to end 3-month strike
Rio Yamat, Defense News
A new five-year contract was overwhelmingly ratified by several thousand Boeing machinists in the Midwest, bringing an end to a three-month strike that had threatened to slow the company's crucial Defense, Space & Security division. The successful resolution means the workers, who build essential military aircraft and weapons systems, including the U.S. Navy's first carrier-based unmanned aircraft, will return to work with a significant wage increase and a signing bonus.
- Defense Stakes: The Congressional Labor Caucus sent a letter urging Boeing to return to the bargaining table, emphasizing that these workers are "essential" to the success of the company and to the U.S. military.
Research
The rear exhaust of an General Electric F110 jet engine, used to power an F-16 Fighting Falcon, prior to an engine test run at a "hush house" on Hill Air Force Base, Utah. (U.S. Air Force photo by Micah Garbarino)
Machine Learning Algorithms to Mitigate Supply Chain Risks and Optimize On-Time Delivery of Gas Turbine Jet Engines
Thomas Lloyd Peeples Jr, George Washington University
This praxis details the development of a predictive decision-support tool utilizing machine learning algorithms to approve on-time delivery (OTD) of precision components in gas turbine jet engines. The findings reveal that supplier ratings and part complexity significantly influence OTD, underscoring the practical value of predictive analytics in complex manufacturing settings. This decision-support framework not only improves supply chain resilience but also offers a scalable solution that can be adapted to other precision manufacturing industries dependent on timely deliveries.
Estimating the effects of ramp-up and learning from cost performance data
Norman Keith Womer, et al., Journal of Defense Analytics and Logistics
By applying a modified model of optimal crew allocation to detailed Cost Performance Report (CPR) data from the U.S. Army's Black Hawk helicopter program, the authors aim to empirically separate the cost impacts of increasing production rates (ramp-up) from genuine worker and organizational skill acquisition (learning). The findings reveal a steep underlying 71% learning curve when production rate effects are factored in, suggesting that better early planning and smoother ramp-up could have significantly reduced labor requirements and program costs by avoiding disruption and experimentation issues.
Cognitive bias in defense acquisition decision-making: insights from the Armed Forces of the Philippines
Ariel Nicomedes D. Torres & Ederson de los Trino Tapia, Journal of Defense Analytics and Logistics
This study identifies five primary biases—loss aversion, groupthink, anchoring, overconfidence, and confirmation bias—that negatively affect procurement decisions crucial for the AFP's modernization goals. A key finding is that while professionals are aware of these biases, they recognize their impact only in hindsight, often after detrimental effects. Leadership-organizational weaknesses and limited research capacity were found to increase susceptibility to cognitive biases.
Events
I/ITSEC 2025: Optimizing Training: Ensuring Operational Dominance
National Training & Simulation Association (NTSA)
1-4 December 2025
Orlando, FL
CCM Institute Academic Symposium 2025
Commerce & Contract Management Institute
2-4 December 2025
Virtual
2026 Naval Nuclear Submarine and Aircraft Carrier Suppliers Conference
NDIA Delaware Valley
21-22 January 2026
Philadelphia, PA
36th Annual NDIA Special Operations Symposium
NDIA
17-18 February 2026
Washington, DC
40th Annual National Logistics Forum
17-19 February 2026
Tampa, FL
Creative Disruptors in the Desert
Creative Defense Foundation
20-21 February 2025
La Quinta, CA
Accelerating Warfighting Capabilities
Naval Postgraduate School 23rd Annual Acquisition Research Symposium and Innovation Summit
6-7 May 2026
Monterey, CA
One more thing...
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith and Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Carlos Ruiz wishing the Corps a happy birthday in pleasant conditions. Screenshot via YouTube
Top Marines stand in a rain storm to wish the Corps a happy birthday
Nicholas Slayton, Task & Purpose
The Marine Corps' official message celebrating the service’s 250th birthday pays tribute to past sacrifices and urges readiness for future conflict. The capstone of the message is a display of classic Marine resolve: Commandant Gen. Eric Smith and Sgt. Maj. Carlos Ruiz delivering their segment while standing drenched in the pouring rain in full dress blues.
- 250th Milestone: The message was released over the weekend leading up to the service's 250th birthday on November 10, 2025. The Commandant and Sergeant Major wished the Corps a happy birthday as the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon marched in front of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.
- History Honored: The message paid tribute to past generations of Marines, their sacrifices, and urged current Marines to stay ready for the next conflict.
- Grit Remains: The Commandant emphasized that although "weapons, platforms and technology continue to evolve," the individual Marines' grit, discipline, resolve, remain our decisive advantage.
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