Specifically, this is seen in the Pentagon’s decades-old “requirements approval” process, “lovingly” referred to in the Pentagon as the JCIDS process, upon which tens of thousands of military positions and civil service jobs are dependent to feed the monster of the acquisition bureaucracy, and like most long-term bureaucratic structures, is now simply a chokepoint for innovation rather than a process to fully vet military procurement requirements. Even in 2006, the Government Accountability Office warned about this byzantine procurement process: “the JSF program continues to be risky… [it] has already encountered increases to estimated development costs, delays to planned deliveries, and reductions in the planned number of JSF to be procured that have eroded DOD’s buying power.” Meanwhile, the cost of the F-35 skyrocketed from $89 million per copy in 2010 to $304 million per copy, a 366% increase for a system that took 15 years to field. Enter two key reforms which can transform this process: First, is the development of new procurement methods known as “Other Transaction Agreements” (OTAs), which allows DoD to fast-track emerging research and development systems and prototypes, and “give DoD the flexibility necessary to adopt and incorporate business practices that reflect commercial industry standards and…provide the Government with access to state-of-the-art technology solutions from traditional and non-traditional defense contractors.”
Author: Bob Carey, Real Clear Wire
Published at: 2025-10-12 21:04:36
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