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Well, let’s open with an observation:\u00a0 Talk is cheap. We’ve heard so many times that government acquisition has been\u00a0 slow, the pace was lethargic, and it just really can’t be sped up much, but we will now – and then we never do. I have to admit, this time at least the noises the Army is making are sounding good.\u00a0 Some of the actions taken – not so much (we’ll talk about that later) but what the Army is describing sounds logical.<\/p>\n
First up? The famous Military Industrial Complex. The MIC, that small close-knit incestuous set of, what, half a dozen mega-contractors (in Korea I guess we would call them chaibols like Hyundai or Samsung) who seem to supply almost all the major acquisitions. Pretty sure anyone here can come up with a list – Boeing and Lockheed-Martin for flying stuff, nowadays Sig for hand weapons, and so on. Most contracts go out for bid to a small number, and reputedly in many cases the bids are tailored to the preferred supplier so that their product is almost the only one that can fit the specs, right? Per Army Secretary Dan Driscoll:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot f-ing wait to innovate until Americans are dying on the battlefield,\u201d Driscoll said. \u201cWe must act now to enable our soldiers. Our window to change is right now, and we have a plan to do it. We will set the pace with innovation and we will win with silicon and software, and not with our soldiers\u2019 blood and bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among coming changes, he said, is a new system that will combine Army equipment-purchasing entities under a single organization reporting directly to Army leadership and dramatically reduce the 12- to 18-month contracting cycle.<\/p>\n
Driscoll castigated the Army for its reliance on outdated equipment, pointing to a photograph showing a soldier born in 2004 working on a computer system fielded in 1995, a decade before his birth.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeanwhile, Ukraine is updating its drone software every couple of weeks,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is absolutely unconscionable that we would send soldiers to war with 30-year-old, obsolete systems. This is the inflection point where we turn it all around.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnequivocal failures\u201d like the Boeing\u2013Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche helicopter (canceled in 2004), XM2001 Crusader self-propelled howitzer (canceled in 2002) and M10 Booker Light Tank (canceled earlier this year) have contributed to losing the public\u2019s trust and cost billions, he said, while leaving troops without the contemporary gear they need.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Repair supply chains are in the spotlight, too.<\/p>\n
Driscoll also brought aircraft parts on to the stage: a fin for a UH-60 Black Hawk\u2019s external fuel tank and a tiny Black Hawk screen control knob. The parts, he said, could be 3D-printed at higher quality for about $3,000 and $60 respectively, but cost $14,000 and $47,000 for full assembly replacements from the manufacturer.<\/p>\n
He cited other \u201cdisruptive\u201d initiatives on display at the show, including a \u201cShark Tank\u201d-like program to apply venture capital to Army tech initiatives, campus-style dining facilities and adoption of 3D-printed concrete structures to cut construction costs.\u00a0Defense News<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Sounds like a lot of the changes hinted at back in July are coming to fruition (here’s an example – Breaking News.)<\/a><\/p>\n
The service began previewing aspects of that approach at this week\u2019s conference via what it\u2019s calling xTechDisrupt, a \u201cshark tank\u201d style competition that lets small and medium businesses<\/span> present technology proposals and compete for prizes of $62,500 each to start implementing their ideas over the next 30 days.<\/p>\n
xTechDisrupt is, in turn, part of a larger initiative called Fuze that the Army launched in September, designed to bring together the service\u2019s existing innovation programs and make them easier for small businesses to access while connecting those firms to funding with processes patterned<\/span> after private venture capital models.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will identify promising startups, quickly fund them and get minimally viable products to soldiers in weeks,\u201d Driscoll said. \u201cFuze, like VC firms, will be successful because we will work with agile, innovative, hungry startups that live on the very edge of innovation. We aligned $750 million to this model, and it will increase to $765 million next year. That\u2019s<\/span> over a 150% increase in the Army\u2019s<\/span> funding toward emerging tech and innovation.\u201dFederal News Network<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Anything that makes the system more agile and forward thinking is good by me.<\/p>\n
(Things I question?\u00a0 Looking at small arms, it seems we have acquired the perfect sniper round. The perfect infantry round. The perfect CQB round. Lots of ‘perfect’ rounds. Too many! We won WWII with two basic infantry rounds (.30-06 and .30 Carbine in today’s parlance) and two handgun calibers (.45ACP and .38 Special (Patton’s .357 doesn’t count.)\u00a0 Do a quick bit of research on how many different rounds – 5.56, 6.5, 6.8 and more) we are fielding and have to supply. It has the potential to be a logistics nightmare.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"