Acquisition Talk

Eric Lofgren and Matt MacGregor chat about the week's newsworthy headlines the world of military acquisition. This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow me on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com

A new paper from MITRE takes an end-to-end look at how military strategy gets translated into  the types of weapon systems actually bought through the acquisition process. It is called Five First Steps to a Modern Defense Budgeting System, and I was pleased to have the authors on the podcast to discuss it: Matt MacGregor, Greg Grant, and Pete Modigliani. In the episode, we discuss - What a challenge-driven Defense Planning Guidance could look like - How special, "innovation" funds can be improved - Oversight of Middle-Tier programs - Imperative for new start authorities This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow me on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com

Eric Lofgren and Matt MacGregor chat about the week's newsworthy headlines the world of military acquisition. This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow me on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com

I was pleased to have Ben Van Roo on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss data on the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and potential reforms. The SBIR program was created in 1982 and is currently funded with 3.2 percent of extramural R&D performed by larger agencies. Coming from a founder and VC perspective, the question Ben asked was whether an emerging tech company should be going after SBIR money. While it is sometimes call "America's Seed Fund," Ben found that some companies will each receive tens of millions in SBIR awards year after year. These firms, sometimes called "SBIR mills," have by-and-large failed to receive significant DoD follow on contracts, indicating a failure to commercialize. The top 25 firms won $1.5 billion in SBIR awards over a six year period, or more than 20 percent of the SBIR total. Overall, Ben finds that perhaps 50-60 percent of all SBIR funding will go to incumbent firms that have sophisticated proposal writing functions. Another 20 to 30 percent of SBIR funding goes towards firms that use third-party consultants to write their proposals. These consulting firms often employ former procurement officials who can help navigate difficult parts like large, open-ended cost volumes. This is where you'll hear "pay to play" in the SBIR world. Ben's rough estimates for these services are $3,000 to $6,000 per month, and there may be different fee structures where the consultants can receive some equity in the company or a fraction of the award if successful. That means between 10 and 30 percent of SBIR funding is up for grabs to emerging tech companies, meaning that their likelihood to win is relatively low. While SBIR may be one of the most accessible programs to get into the defense industry, it is not one designed to transition dual-use tech firms into fielded capabilities. Ben notes that comparatively few firms that received DIU or In-Q-Tel funding also won SBIR awards, perhaps because they were more focused on growth opportunities of companies that are already commercializing (Series B or Series C). This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow me on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com

Eric Lofgren and Matt MacGregor chat about the week's newsworthy headlines the world of military acquisition. This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow me on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com

I was pleased to have the John Whitley join me on the Acquisition Talk podcast to discuss digital transformation, the potential for "as a service" business practices to bypass the valley of death, and deeper issues of program analysis and strategic planning. John was recently the acting Secretary of the Army in 2021, Army Comptroller before that, and acting Director of OSD Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE). He's also had past experience in FFRDCs, other agencies, teaching at universities, and started out on the operational side as an Army Ranger. During the episode, John argues that digital transformation is affecting programs at all stages of their lifecycle. For example, the UH-60 Blackhawks are using "digital twins" to improve upgrades and maintenance. The newer CH-53K Super Stallions are integrating digital manufacturing processes, such as digitizing the work instructions on the wrenches to the individual torque specifications for all 11,800 parts. Then you have the Future Vertical Lift program which will start with an unbroken digital thread from the development process. Digital transformation matters because it accelerates modernization of the force more generally, and because it enables new business practices. Software is abstracting a lot of hardware or assets that companies and people used to buy, own, and operate themselves. These products are becoming services that can be bought on demand. Server farms are abstracting to the cloud, vehicles are abstracting to Uber, your DVD set is abstracting into streaming services. Dynamic allocation of resources still requires strategic planning and direction to make sure that important capabilities are available and missions accomplished. This is one of the priorities for John. He finds that strategic direction, such as through the Defense Planning Guidance, is lacking in its ability to affect the services' program build. This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow me on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com

Eric Lofgren and Matt MacGregor chat about the week's newsworthy headlines the world of military acquisition. This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow me on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com

Eric Lofgren and Matt MacGregor chat about the week's newsworthy headlines the world of military acquisition. This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow me on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com

I was pleased to have Bill Johnson on the Acquisition Talk podcast to talk about how he helped bring commercial technology, open architecture, and continuous delivery to the sonar community in the 1990s with the Acoustic Rapid COTS Insertion (ARCI) program. Bill was the deputy program manger and pioneered many of the techniques DoD is still trying to go after today, and the results speak for themselves. ARCI achieved a 60-fold decrease in real processing cost, a seven-fold increase in sensor performance, and reduced false alarms by 40 percent. Bill explained that after the Cold War, the RDT&E budget fell by 70 percent for undersea sonar systems. Around the same time, John Walker sold information to the Russians about how the United States detected and classified enemy submarines. Suddenly, their submarines became very quite. Acoustic superiority became a national security imperative. The typical reaction for the defense acquisition system is to demand more money to solve the problem. The general manager of the prime contractor at the time IBM, which later merged into Lockheed Martin, told Bill that they’ve “got deep pockets.” The contractor could keep R&D going while the program office searched for more money. “Hey, we’re part of this problem,” Bill recalled thinking. “We had to leverage the commercial side.” I’d like to thank Bill Johnson for joining me on the Acquisition Talk podcast. There’s a ton more information on ARCI and the case study details of what made it an acquisition success. Important papers and other resources are at the acquisition talk website. Be sure to check them out! This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow me on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com

Eric Lofgren and Matt MacGregor chat about the week's newsworthy headlines the world of military acquisition. This podcast was produced by Eric Lofgren. You can follow me on Twitter @AcqTalk and find more information at https://AcquisitionTalk.com