My colleague James Hasik recently published his newest book, Securing the MRAP: Lessons Learned in Marketing and Military Procurement. In this episode of the Acquisition Talk podcast, we listen in on an excellent event hosted by the Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University. It starts with a conversation between Senior Fellows Stephanie Halcrow and James Hasik. Afterwards, Stephanie moderates a panel discussion with:
- Susan Alderson, the statistician who sparked the successful drive to adopt the MRAP in the Marine Corps
- Damon Walsh, a former MRAP marketing executive at Force Protection Inc.
- Paul Mann, the first MRAP program manager
The MRAP, of course, was an urgent program in the mid-to-late 2000s that addressed the IED threat. Basically, it is a ground vehicle with advanced suspension, greater ground clearance, a v-shaped hull, and kevlar panels that make it survivable against enemy IEDs. Even though the basic problem had been solved in South Africa many years before, the interesting part is how this solution was not immediately obvious given all the different ways you can defeat IEDs. Many different groups of people -- some of which didn't even know each other -- contributed to the genesis of the MRAP program, and then rapid scaling to 5,000 vehicles in less than 19 months after the JUONS requirement.
It is truly an amazing story, and the event really brought out some great lessons learned:
- Interservice rivalry can incentivize adoption
- Don't break too many rice bowls
- DoD must improve its market research capabilities
- Experiment and test before working on requirements
- Ignore those who say you'll fail
- Negotiating with suppliers on a DX rated contract