Acquisition
Lt. Gen. Leonard F. Anderson IV, commander of the Marine Corps Reserve; Vice Adm. Nancy S. Lacore, chief of the Navy Reserve; Air Force Gen. Steven S. Nordhaus, chief of the National Guard Bureau; Lt. Gen. Robert D. Harter, chief of the Army Reserve; and Lt. Gen. John P. Healy, chief of the Air Force Reserve, testify before the House Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee during a hearing on Capitol Hill, May 20, 2025. (Photo credit: Army Master Sgt. Zach Sheely)
Sharpening Signals and Reducing Noise for Better Defense Budgets
Mark Mitchum, War on the Rocks
The United States must integrate economic statecraft into its defense budgeting to effectively translate national economic power into military advantage. By reducing procedural "noise" and sharpening "signals" to industry, the Department of Defense can better leverage private capital and sustain the industrial base required for modern conflict.
- Massive Fiscal Lever: Representing nearly half of all federal discretionary spending, the defense budget is the government's largest single mechanism to drive national economic outcomes and hard power.
- Guidance Gap: Current Defense Planning Guidance often fails by identifying priorities that far exceed realistic funding levels, resulting in a fragmented compilation of parochial service interests.
- Industrial Fragility: Critical dual-use assets, such as heavy aircraft production lines for aerial refueling, are currently vulnerable to year-to-year budget decisions that ignore broader national economic impacts.
- Private Capital Synergy: To outpace rivals, the Pentagon must provide clear, problem-centric demand signals that allow private investors to align their capital with national security challenges.
The procurement reset: Adopting a simplicity-first mindset
William D. Eggers, James Gordon, et al., Deloitte
Modern government procurement reform is shifting away from merely digitizing complex legacy systems toward a "simplicity-first" mindset that streamlines processes before applying technology. This approach prioritizes speed, broader market access, and measurable mission outcomes to transform procurement into a strategic delivery engine.
- Simplicity Before Tech: Instead of "digitizing the clutter," successful reforms strip out low-value reviews and standardize documents first, ensuring technology enables clarity rather than reinforcing existing complexity.
- Embedded Safeguards: Once pathways are simplified, digital tools can automatically apply standard clauses and validations, allowing routine buys to move quickly without compromising public accountability.
- Mission-Ready Data: Experts suggest moving beyond basic transaction dates to a "common data spine" that connects requirement intent and budget timing directly to post-award mission performance.
- Calibrated Risk: Future oversight models aim to match review intensity to actual risk levels, allowing low-risk purchases to flow through automated paths while reserving deep human scrutiny for high-stakes projects.
Innovation
Soldiers from a drone unit of a battalion of Ukraine's 422nd Separate Unmanned Systems Regiment ''Luftwaffe'' prepare a Baba Yaga heavy bomber drone before a daytime training flight in the Zaporizhzhia direction, Ukraine, on March 23, 2026. Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images
How Ukraine’s defense industry innovates at the speed of modern war
Göran Roos and Johan Roos, Defense One
Ukraine has revolutionized drone warfare by transitioning from a centralized, bureaucratic procurement model to a distributed, soldier-driven network that prioritizes real-time battlefield feedback and rapid industrial iteration. This organizational agility has allowed them to outproduce the combined output of all NATO members while outperforming more expensive Western systems in both cost and field-tested reliability.
- Explosive Industrial Growth: Since the invasion, Ukraine’s domestic drone sector has expanded from seven to approximately 500 manufacturers, producing four million units last year with a goal of seven million in 2026.
- Winning the Evaluation: A Ukrainian-developed interceptor recently scored 99.3 out of 100 in the Pentagon’s Drone Dominance assessment, outperforming every American competitor by over ten points.
- Shared Strategic Assets: Rather than hiding vulnerabilities, Ukrainian firms share failure data across the network, allowing hundreds of companies to simultaneously develop countermeasures for threats like electronic warfare.
- Decentralized Procurement Authority: Capital flows toward demonstrated effectiveness because individual military units independently select suppliers based on what works under fire, bypassing traditional multi-year contract cycles.
- Peacetime Western Success: Demonstrating that rapid organizational models can work outside of a wartime ecosystem, U.S. engineers fielded the LUCAS drone in just five months, at $35,000 per unit.
Industry
Via Workboat
Why Can't the U.S. Build Ships?
Brian Potter, Noahpinion
The United States' commercial shipbuilding industry has transitioned from a global leader in the mid-19th century to a marginal player that is now vastly outperformed by international rivals like China and South Korea. This analysis explores the decline of American commercial shipbuilding, tracing its loss of international competitiveness from the mid-19th-century transition to steam and steel until the present day.
- Golden Age: US commercial shipbuilding hasn't been internationally competitive since the era of wooden ship construction. In 1860, US shipyards were building some of the fastest ships in the world - but American shipbuilders were reluctant to transition to steam-powered, metal ships. By the 1890s, US shipbuilding was no longer competitive with other nations.
- Innovation Paradox: Although the U.S. pioneered revolutionary technologies like nuclear power, container ships, and large-block construction, it failed to translate these into a competitive industry while rivals like Japan and Korea perfected them.
- Temporary Wartime Triumphs: During the World Wars, the U.S. successfully used prefabricated, standardized methods to build thousands of ships, yet even at its peak, it still required more labor hours per vessel than British yards.
- Protectionist Shield: Restrictive laws prop up a small domestic industry but remove the competitive pressure needed to modernize or lower costs for the international market.
- Lacking Political Will: Unlike nations that viewed shipbuilding as a critical export priority, the U.S. has historically lacked the national motivation and political will to reform the industry for global success.
Related: From Shipyards Comes Seapower: Revitalizing Naval Shipbuilding
Will private capital and disruption reshape the defense industrial base?
Dan Folliard and Michael Sion, Breaking Defense
Record-breaking private capital investment is currently acting as a force multiplier for the defense industrial base, but this momentum remains fragile without better alignment between government and financial backers. To achieve meaningful returns and enhance national security, the Pentagon must shift its spending toward novel solutions, while private firms must prove they can scale production for complex military environments.
Anduril Wins Naval Postgraduate School Tactical Missile Innovation Prize Challenge
NPS Public Affairs
Anduril has been named the winner of the Tactical Missile Innovation Prize Challenge, a joint initiative by the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) designed to modernize missile development. The competition focused on identifying affordable, adaptable, and scalable methodologies to rapidly deliver next-generation capabilities to the warfighter.
- Anduril’s Victory: As the winner, Anduril received a $200,000 prize for a methodology that seamlessly blends digital engineering, modeling, and flight testing into a cohesive production pipeline.
- Competitive Landscape: The challenge drew intense interest from over 40 diverse organizations, ranging from commercial businesses to academic research centers, all aiming to reinvent missile technology.
- From Theory to Action: The prize challenge originated from the doctoral dissertation of U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Dillon Pierce at NPS, demonstrating the practical application of military graduate research.
- Future Partnerships: Companies providing viable proposals—not just the winner—are now eligible for Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA) to continue collaborating with naval acquisition partners.
Research
An unmanned surface vessel and guided-missile destroyer USS Delbert D. Black operate in the Persian Gulf, Jan. 8, 2023. (Photo credit: Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jeremy R. Boan)
Plotting the Future: Updating the DoD's Innovation Policy Gap to Reclaim Technological Leadership
Leland LeBaron, Naval Postgraduate School
This research, covering 1982–2022, critically examines the U.S. DOD innovation policy leadership, analyzing the National Military Strategy (NMS) and National Defense Strategy (NDS) compared with the innovation strategies of leading U.S. businesses. It centers on Five Critical Innovation Areas: Flexible Organizational Structure, Agile Funding, Risk Tolerance, Minimal Security, and Customer-Centric Approach. Key findings highlight a pronounced lag in DOD’s policy development, contrasting sharply with its pro-innovation rhetoric. This gap, persisting over four decades, impedes the DOD’s ability to adapt to rapid technological changes and shifting national security landscapes. The study identifies a crucial need for DOD to transition to a more responsive and dynamic policy framework, especially in the face of evolving technologies like AI.
A Comparative Analysis of Supply Chain Predictive AI in the Defense Industrial Base
Destinee Batson, George Washington University
This research aims to compare machine learning models to detect malware in the cyber supply chain and enhance the security of the Defense Industrial Base (DIB). Additionally, it identifies critical cyber supply chain features to inform DIB technology purchases to aid in the federal acquisition process. Selecting the appropriate machine learning model for effective detection and prevention of cyber supply chain attacks can support federal procurement strategies within the Defense Industrial Base (DIB). Ultimately, the findings from this research will provide concrete recommendations to improve strategic decision-making and enhance cybersecurity in federal acquisitions.
Defense Industrial Base Consolidation and Its Impact on U.S. National Security
Adam W. Loomis, Capitol Technology University
This research examines the effects of consolidation on essential national security aspects, including competitiveness, readiness, innovation, supply chain resilience, and project management, from the perspective of defense industry experts. Using a purposive sampling strategy, data were collected from defense industry experts through a quantitative survey conducted online via Google Forms and analyzed within the theoretical framework of competition theory. Descriptive statistics and IBM SPSS were used to ensure precision and efficacy in data management while facilitating a clear presentation of key results. The participants perceived the consolidation of the DIB as harming essential national security aspects, including competitiveness, readiness, innovation, supply chain resilience, and project and general management.
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One more thing...
Buildings erected in 1844 located from 23rd to 25th Sts NW, from E St NW to Potomac Park, Washington, DC, to house the Depot of Charts and Instruments and the Naval Observatory. The Naval Observatory remained at this location until 1893 (NH 1671).
The First U.S. Naval Observatory
Naval History and Heritage Command
The establishment of the first U.S. Naval Observatory in 1844 marked a critical shift from American dependence on British navigational data to technological and scientific sovereignty. This institution fundamentally transformed the nation's relationship with time and space by standardizing measurements and pioneering the telegraphic dissemination of "Navy time" across the expanding country.
- Time-Keeping Revolution: The observatory pioneered the telecommunication of time by connecting its precise noon time-ball signals to the telegraph, enabling instantaneous synchronization across state boundaries.
- National Standardization: By disseminating signals to railroads and fire alarms, the Navy ended the era of disjointed local "sundial" times and initiated the process that led to national time zones.
- Stellar Discoveries: Beyond its logistical duties, the institution gained international prestige by identifying Mars’s two moons and housing the world’s largest telescope of that era.
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