The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed
11 days ago
- #defense-acquisition
- #military-innovation
- #lean-methodology
- The Department of War (DoW) has abolished the 1962 Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System (PPBS) to prioritize speed in delivering advanced weapons.
- The DoW is adopting Lean Methodology and will focus on buying commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products rather than custom-designed weapons.
- Major organizational changes include the creation of Portfolio Acquisition Executives (PAEs) to streamline the acquisition process and reduce bureaucracy.
- PAEs will have the authority to make trade-offs between cost, schedule, and performance to rapidly deliver capabilities to warfighters.
- The DoW will use Non-Federal Acquisition Regulations (Non-FAR) like Other Transaction Authorities (OTAs) to work more flexibly with innovative companies.
- Weapons systems will be designed with Modular Open System Architectures to ensure interoperability and avoid vendor lock.
- The Defense Acquisition University will be transformed into the Warfighting Acquisition University to retrain acquisition officers with a focus on competency and real-world problem-solving.
- The Joint Staff's JCIDS process has been replaced with new organizations to accelerate capability development and align resources with warfighting priorities.
- The changes aim to make the DoW more agile, competitive, and capable of delivering modern military technology quickly.
- Startups and scaleups now have a significant opportunity to supply the DoW, provided they can deliver on promises without excessive bureaucracy.