Acquisition
Image: OpenAI
Everything you know about contracting has changed
Michael Crosby, Federal News Network
Drawing on more than ten hours of direct interviews with senior procurement leaders, Michael Crosby reports that federal contracting has entered a new era defined by high scrutiny and low risk tolerance, replacing the traditional model of long-term growth with the agency with a demand for immediate, measurable results.
- Shrinking ROI Windows: The benchmark for demonstrating value has shifted from multi-year plans to a narrow 30-to-90-day window, making long-term modernization projects without near-term wins harder to defend.
- Pilots as Entry: No-cost pilots and prototypes are now the mandatory entry point for vendors, allowing agencies to reduce risk and create internal champions before committing to enterprise-scale funding.
- Rapidly Perishing Networks: The "ex-govvie" playbook is outdated, as organizational turnover and shifting acquisition pathways mean connections from even a year ago may no longer be relevant
- Capacity Constraints: Significant shortages of contracting officers are driving agencies to expand existing contracts rather than launching new, oversight-heavy acquisition programs.
Modernizing the Financial Management Regulation
Paul Thompson, Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA)
The Financial Management Regulation is a comprehensive document that guides War Department personnel on financial management, acquisition and more. But with more than 7,000 pages of detailed technical guidance, it can be difficult for users to navigate, understand and revise. This summary details IDA’s actionable recommendations for modernizing the document and boosting efficiency.
Defense & Strategy
Image: Cpl. Iyer Ramakrishna via DVIDS.
The New Era of Air and Missile Defense
Matthew Isler, War on the Rocks
Traditional air defense models have reached a structural limit because modern adversaries now employ cheap drones and missiles at a scale that can overwhelm and exhaust expensive, localized defenses. This article proposes a shift toward Integrated Air Missile Defense 3.0, a strategy that relies on fire-control-level integration where any sensor can guide any shooter within a resilient, dispersed network. This new architecture prioritizes magazine depth through lower-cost interceptors and emphasizes that offensive action to destroy launchers at their source is essential for sustainable defense.
The Navy Needs Precise Mass and Here Is How to Get There
Michael C. Horowitz, War on the Rocks
The U.S. Navy must shift from a reliance on a few expensive, vulnerable platforms toward a strategy of "precise mass" to maintain deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. By integrating smaller autonomous vessels and low-cost munitions, the Navy can build a distributed and resilient fleet capable of scaling at the speed modern warfare demands.
- Rapid Scalability: To bypass backlogged traditional shipyards, the Navy should construct medium autonomous warships in smaller "yacht yards," leveraging commercial speed and efficiency to expand the fleet by 2030.
- Collaborative Autonomy: These 45-to-190-foot vessels should act as Collaborative Combat Surface Vessels, providing distributed surveillance and strike capabilities through modular launch tubes and open-architecture software.
- Industrial Pivot: With major shipbuilding projects years behind schedule, the Navy must utilize over 60 inactive facilities and 86 active smaller yards to overcome the limits of the current industrial base.
- Organizational Inertia: The primary obstacle to modernization is not technology but entrenched bureaucratic preferences for large, capital-intensive ships that risk becoming obsolete in the era of precise mass.
Industry
Image: Midjourney
Rethinking Corporate Risk and Alignment in an Era of Economic Statecraft
Gen. (ret.) Timothy Ray, War on the Rocks
The United States has entered a new era of economic statecraft where the private sector serves as the primary terrain for geopolitical competition. American corporations must move beyond short-term efficiency to redefine corporate self-interest through the lens of strategic risk, accounting for vulnerabilities in infrastructure, market access, and input dependencies.
- Strategic Misalignment: Many American companies still utilize a strategic model built for a globalized era of stability, failing to recognize that broad geopolitical risk now falls within their fiduciary responsibility.
- Corrosive Logic: Decisions that are "individually rational" in business terms—such as offshoring and prioritizing financial efficiency over manufacturing depth—can become collectively damaging when applied within a non-commercial geopolitical contest.
- Market Leverage: Building deep revenue dependence in restricted foreign markets creates a pressure point that adversaries can use to coerce not only the firm but also broader U.S. policy choices during a crisis.
- Deterrence by Resilience: True security now requires "deterrence by resilience," which is the demonstrated ability of the private sector to absorb economic disruption and maintain production without being coerced into altering course.
JUST IN: Defense Industrial Base Needs Stable Budget, Report Says
Tabitha Reeves, National Defense
The National Defense Industrial Association’s (NDIA) “Vital Signs 2026” report identifies budget instability as the primary obstacle to national security, calling for predictable funding to maintain a competitive advantage over near-peer adversaries. Based on input from over 1,600 participants, the report argues that on-time appropriations and bipartisan political consensus are essential for sustaining a healthy and scalable defense industrial base.
Full Report: Vital Signs 2026: The Health and Readiness of the Defense Industrial Base
Research
Sailors fire a simulated naval strike missile aboard the USS Fitzgerald during Exercise Rim of the Pacific in the Pacific Ocean, July 18, 2024. (Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Jordan Jennings)
Cost-Benefit Analysis of Surface-to-Air-Missiles for Guided Missile Destroyer Loadout
Lucius Campbell Jr., Naval Postgraduate School
This thesis explores the tradeoffs in risk and costs for missile loadouts on Arleigh Burke–class destroyers with an eye towards firing doctrines. We focus on two missile doctrines and the estimated costs for an Arleigh Burke – class destroyer, crew, and the missiles shot. The two main missile-firing doctrines used for naval air missile defense are shoot-look-shoot and shoot-shoot-look-shoot. Our work demonstrates that the SM-2 shoot-shoot-look-shoot firing doctrine has a lower net present value than the shoot-look-shoot SM-6 firing doctrine. This shows that the SM-2 missile doctrine increases the probability of survival, which lowers the risk to the ship and should be the preferred method between the two doctrines.
De-Risking Defense Innovation at the Earliest Stages: The Strategic Role of Entrepreneurial Fellowships and Early Non-Dilutive Grant Funding
Elizabeth Kennedy & Lauren Emmi, Technology & National Security Review
Traditional defense acquisition and grant mechanisms are optimized for integrating mature technologies against well-defined requirements, rather than high-risk early technologies, leaving early-stage innovations without viable pathways to maturation and adoption. This paper examines entrepreneurial fellowship models as critical infrastructure for defense and other critical innovation. This paper argues that early-stage grant-based fellowships outperform other funding mechanisms in three key ways: (1) accelerating transition from proof-of-concept to defensible prototype, (2) reducing downstream acquisition risk by enabling earlier validation of operational use cases and requirements, and (3) crowding in private capital at later stages without prematurely forcing commercial scaling or misaligned market entry. Importantly, these programs complement—not replace—existing acquisition pathways by feeding them with better-defined, more advanced technologies.
Featured Reports
Narumon Bowonkitwanchai via Getty Images
American AI Companies Can’t Get Enough Chips: Implications for U.S. Policy
James Sanders, Janet Egan and Rory Madigan, Centre for a New American Security
Who Will Make Money on AI?: A Discussion Paper on Aligning Commercial Incentives with National Security Interests
Geoffrey Gertz & Emily Kilcrease, Center for a New American Security
How a surge in defence and dual-use technology investment could reconfigure the global AI race
Katja Bego, Chatham House
A New Phase for the U.S. Battery Industry: Policy Considerations to Sustain Momentum, Bridge Gaps, and Avoid Pitfalls
Ray Cai and Jane Nakano, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Saving Subic: Strategic Infrastructure, Development Finance, and the Limits of U.S. Economic Statecraft
Thomas Bryja, Center for Strategic and International Studies
AUKUS: Government must do more – and do it faster
UK House of Commons Defence Committee
Events
MILSATCOM USA
SAE Media
8-10 June 2026
Arlington, VA
Future Force Capabilities
NDIA
8-10 June 2026
Las Vegas, NV
Eurosatory
15-19 June 2026
Paris, France
Congressional M&S Leadership Summit 2026
National Training and Simulation Association
16 June 2026
Orlando, FL
2026 Army Summit
Potomac Officers Club
18 June 2026
Reston, VA
10th Annual Federal Acquisition Conference
Professional Services Council
25 June 2026
Arlington, VA or Virtual
Converge @ NPS
Naval Postgraduate School Foundation
22-24 July 2026
Monterey, CA
2026 Air and Space Summit
Potomac Officers Club
30 July 2026
McLean, VA
One more thing...
Releasing the carrier pigeons from seaplane, U.S. Naval Air Station, Anacostia, Washington, DC, 12 February 1919 (NH 121290).
The Navy’s Use of Carrier Pigeons
Naval History and Heritage Command
From the late 19th century through World War II, the U.S. Navy utilized carrier pigeons as a critical communication backup, providing essential ship-to-shore and air-to-station links during equipment failures or periods of enforced radio silence.
- Academic Origins: Professor Henri Marion established the first experimental pigeon loft at the Naval Academy in 1891, training birds to fly from school ships back to their home base in Annapolis.
- Proven Utility: The pigeons demonstrated their practical value in 1893 when they successfully summoned an emergency tugboat to a ship at sea following a fatal accident.
- Official Mobilization: The U.S. Naval Pigeon Messenger Service was formally established in 1896, with lofts constructed at major Navy Yards to support communication during the Spanish-American War.
- Technological Displacement: The service was briefly disestablished and the birds auctioned off in 1902 after the Navy pivoted toward the newly available wireless telegraph technology.
- Wartime Resilience: World War I saw a resurgence of the program as aviators carried pigeons on antisubmarine missions as a backup for radio failure, leading to the rescue of a crashed crew in 1917.
- Specialized Training: The Navy created a dedicated "pigeoneer" rating and published rigorous manuals detailing the precise housing, diet, and rapport-building techniques required to maintain the birds.
- Aerial Support: During World War II, pigeons were routinely used on airships and dirigibles to maintain communication during radio silence, utilizing color-coded capsules for emergency messages.
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