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This week the President's Budget Request was finally released. Topline for the Defense Department is $842 billion, an increase of 3.2% from FY 2023.
- Indo-Pacific Command has separately requested $15.3 billion to achieve national security goals in the region, a $4 billion increase from FY 2023.
Congressional committees got to work with an abundance of hearings this week, including on the Afghanistan withdrawal and on threats in NORTHCOM and SOUTHCOM from the People's Republic of China and other adversaries and malign actors.
- SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Laura Richardson gave disturbing testimony about actions the PRC is taking in South America through the Belt and Road Initiative and called for "Team USA" to more intentionally and more visibly partner with our neighbors.
- Her opening remarks offered a chilling warning: countries are "turning away from democracy because the U.S. overpromises and underdelivers. ... While we are committed to transparent processes, we must be faster and more innovative to outcompete our adversaries."
In research, a report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) finds that the US comes second to China in 37 of 44 critical technology research areas examined, including artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology and quantum technology.
- An IG report from the National Science Foundation urges caution on NSF's use of OTAs as tools to implement CHIPS Act investments, identifying a need for the agency to create guiding policies for these procurements.
Our top story this week covers the Air Force's interest in using vendor pools in which multiple contractors are selected to provide similar capabilities. Andrew Hunter argues it will bring more competition and resilience. This follows strategies the Space Force has been using for satellite providers.
At this week's Air Warfare Symposium, CQ Brown announced a new Future Operating Concept for the Air Force and evaluated how things are going with his call to "Accelerate Change or Lose." He has succeeded in breaking down some bureaucratic hurdles by emphasizing collaboration across ranks.
Two commentary pieces make the case for innovation and policy to counter our adversaries: former Congressman Mac Thornberry and co-chairs of the Commission on Defense Innovation Adoption, Mark Esper and Deborah Lee James.
In ARP news, we have three events to invite you to: next week's webinar on shipbuilding in the Coast Guard, a NPS Seapower Conversation with Ghost Fleet author Peter Singer, and of course the 20th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium, which is only two months away.
- Most of our panels will be in-person only, so make your travel plans now. Take a break from staring at your computer screen and join us in person!
20th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium
10-11 May 2023
Monterey, CA
Join us in Monterey for the 20th Annual Acquisition Research Symposium. The program is now posted online.
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Highlight on Day 2 is Panel #20: Finding and Leveraging Sources of Asymmetric Advantage in Defense Acquisitions, chaired by Todd Harrison, Managing Director of Metrea Strategic Insights and non-resident Senior Advisor at CSIS.
This Week's Top Story
‘Vendor Pools:’ One Strategy to Accelerate Acquisition and Increase Competition
Greg Hadley, Air & Space Forces Magazine
What if the Air and Space Forces could create their own dream teams of contractors for major programs instead of leaving it to prime contractors to assemble teams on their own? The Air Force is looking at ways to achieve that effect and generate more competition, said Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter.
Speaking March 7 at the AFA Warfare Symposium, Hunter said the department has used “vendor pools” with classified programs sees it as a valuable tool for stimulating competition in the defense industrial base throughout the life of a program.
“So you don’t get into this sort of high stakes [decade-long] competition, where all the mission systems are defined early on, they’re aligned with a prime and then they’re sort of locked to that team, and everyone else is locked on another team,” Hunter said. Once teams are formed, he added, ““And then those locks, “We can’t unlock them as we go on, and we can’t come back later and say, ‘Well, OK, it turns out that the key mission system is something that I was doing a little work on, but I didn’t necessarily have it prioritized exactly right when we did the first chalk line.’”
Creating “relatively broad vendor pools” gives the Air Force flexibility to seek alternative solutions from industry with relative ease. As an unclassified example of the approach, Hunter cited the Next Generation Air refueling System (NGAS), the service’s new tanker program.
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