Happy Friday!
We are back after taking last week off. (You didn't miss it! Your editor was enjoying a wonderfully exhausting family camping trip in the beautiful state of Michigan.)
And now, this week's news highlights:
Boeing said they're not bidding on more fixed price contracts, particularly for the Air Force's collaborative combat aircraft effort.
- Also in the news this week, the company is still working on the new Air Force One, a notorious fixed price deal that has run majestically over its initial $3.9 billion budget by more than $2 billion.
Air Force acquisition head Andrew Hunter made some headlines with comments this week.
- Lockheed Martin won't be getting fully paid even though deliveries of F-35s resumed because they come with only a partial version of the Technology Refresh 3 upgrade.
- And he's working on what an altered acquisition strategy for the Sentinel program will look like, following the latest review that promised the program will continue with modifications. The new approach may compete portions of the contract previously awarded to Northop Grumman.
DoD released its latest Arctic Strategy.
- It articulates a monitor-and-respond approach in line with the 2022 National Defense Strategy.
- It calls for a three-prong effort: enhance DoD's Arctic capabilities, deepen engagement with Allies and partners, and exercise our forces to build readiness for operations at high latitudes.
- Part of the justification for a new strategy: Russia and the People's Republic of China are working together more.
- And just yesterday, we got news of Russian and Chinese bombers flying together near Alaska.
A new ruling from the Court of Federal Claims shows that the court can hear and decide on protests against other transaction agreements, ensuring that OTAs are no longer immune from protests.
In research, the Defense Innovation Board released two new studies this month:
- Aligning Incentives to Drive Faster Tech Adoption
- Optimizing Innovation Cooperation with Allies and Partners
Our top story dives into one of the recommendations from the second study, calling for a new undersecretary of defense for international industrial cooperation.
- Another option: "reconsolidate the USD(A&S) and USD(R&E) into an Undersecretary for the Industrial Base focusing on innovation research
and development, supply chains, production capacity, and access to technologies both domestically and globally. This alternative might be equally suitable, as it would address the disjointedness that characterizes current OSD structures while minimizing bureaucratic growth."
In ARP news, check out the video from one of our symposium panels on artificial intelligence in acquisition.
- It was the last panel of the day on Thursday, and it was a banger!
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This Week's Top Story
Undersecretary for international cooperation needed, DOD advisers say
Courtney Albon, Defense News
A key Pentagon innovation advisory panel is recommending the Defense Department establish a new undersecretary of defense to lead international collaboration across the defense industrial base.
The report, which the Defense Innovation Board released July 17, claims that the Pentagon’s international defense cooperation portfolio has been “disjointed” since 2018 — when the department split its acquisition and research and engineering office into two separate undersecretaries.
“Today, the DOD does not have a central standing mechanism for interfacing with allies, partners, and international organizations, resulting in a state of considerable fragmentation, duplication, and lack of coordination across workstreams,” the report states. “DOD senior leaders are stretched thin by the many duties pressed upon them, and that international defense industrial cooperation is often relegated in the face of competing priorities.”
The board’s proposed solution is to create a new undersecretary of defense for international integration and cooperation to lead requirements development and integration efforts among the U.S. and its allies and partners. The undersecretary would manage classification guidelines, oversee technical standards and help ensure that communication networks and protocols are interoperable.
“The [undersecretary for international integration and cooperation] would address the common complaint among allies and partners that the DOD and federal interagency lack the necessary capacity, transparency, and harmonization for effective international industrial base cooperation,” according to the report.
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